county

¹ American  

[koun-tee] / ˈkaʊn ti /

noun

counties plural

1. the largest administrative division of a U.S. state.

   Miami, Florida, is in Dade County.

2. one of the chief administrative divisions of a country or state, as in Great Britain and Ireland.

3. one of the larger divisions for purposes of local administration, as in Canada and New Zealand.

4. the territory of a county, especially its rural areas.

   We farmed out in the county before moving to town.

5. the inhabitants of a county.

   It was supposed to be a secret, but you told the whole county.

6. the domain of a count or earl.

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county ² American  

[koun-tee] / ˈkaʊn ti /

noun

Obsolete.

1. count.

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county British  

/ ˈkaʊntɪ /

noun

1. 1. any of the administrative or geographic subdivisions of certain states, esp any of the major units into which England and Wales are or have been divided for purposes of local government

   2. ( as modifier )

      county cricket

2. an electoral division in a rural area

3. obsolete the lands under the jurisdiction of a count or earl

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adjective

1. informal having the characteristics and habits of the inhabitants of country houses and estates, esp an upper-class accent and an interest in horses, dogs, etc

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

noun

• counties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of county¹

1250–1300; Middle English counte < Anglo-French counté, Old French cunté, conte < Late Latin comitātus imperial seat, office of a comes ( see count ²), equivalent to Latin comit-, stem of comes + -ātus -ate ³ (or by reanalysis of Latin comitātus escort, retinue, originally verbal noun of comitārī to accompany, derivative of comes

Origin of county²

1540–50; < Anglo-French counte count ²; -y by confusion with county ¹

Explanation

A county is a specific region of a state or country. While the United States is made up of 50 states, it also has over 3000 counties. In the U.S., a county is a separate administrative area of a state — in other words, there is a local government that manages each individual county. In some parts of the country, there are town governments in addition to county governments, both of which are subordinate to the state government. The states range from having three counties (Delaware) to 254 counties (Texas). The Latin root of county is comitatus, "jurisdiction of a count."

Example Sentences

Championship Soccer Stadium is owned and managed by the city, which has leased it to the Orange County Soccer Club of the second-tier USL Championship.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026

A year later, a court ruled that Devon County Council had failed to meet its duty when setting the fees it pays to private care homes.

From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026

The company broke ground on a $10 billion data-center campus in rural Richmond County, N.C., last month, The News & Observer reported.

From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026

A woman from Orange County, Calif., was charged last fall with illegally registering her dog to vote and submitting ballots on the canine’s behalf.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026

Daddy steered the boat around trees to the corner of County Road 2435 and Rural Route 2, where there was no Purgatory Hill and we could get up and out of the grove easily.

From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles