multinational
Americannoun
-
multinationals
plural
adjective
-
of, relating to, or involving several nations.
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noting or pertaining to multinationals.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of multinational
Explanation
When something is described as multinational, it involves more than two countries. A multinational corporation buys and sells in several countries, and it may also have offices in these countries. A multinational conflict is a war that involves the governments of three or more countries. Multinational peacekeepers might be from an organization like the United Nations (which could also be described as a multinational organization), working in many countries toward a peaceful agreement between them. The adjective multinational uses the prefix multi-, or "many," adding it to national, from the Latin nationem, "birth, kind, or tribe."
Vocabulary lists containing multinational
Political Geography - Middle School
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Political Geography - High School
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Economics
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
On July 30 in Riyadh, Yemen and 13 other nations issued a statement establishing a multinational maritime defense alliance to protect the waters off our shore.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
She began writing straight out of college, freelanced for years and eventually followed a path taken by many young Filipinos: joining a multinational in the country's booming outsourcing industry.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Philippine outsourcing companies compete directly with rivals in India and elsewhere for contracts from multinational corporations.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Takuo Kobayashi, of Japan’s maritime self-defense force, is one of several U.S. allies taking senior leadership roles commanding Rimpac’s thousands of multinational exercises—including one involving the sinking of a pair of decommissioned American warships.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Through an employment agency she got a job as a secretary at ICI, a multinational pharmaceutical company in Braamfontein, a suburb of Johannesburg.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Third-quarter GDP growth will likely accelerate to at least a 5% annual pace due to continued onshoring efforts from U.S. multinationals, booming U.S. energy exports, strong retail sales growth and AI productivity gains.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
The tax applies to tech multinationals like Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon, specifically targeting firms with global digital revenues exceeding £500 million and UK revenues over £25 million.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
A government loss, he said, would be a significant blow to the IRS effort against multinationals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
A stronger dollar can hurt the overseas earnings of large U.S. multinationals, while also tightening financial conditions for companies and countries that borrow in dollars.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
These multinationals went global for markets and labor, spearheaded first by the expansion of the Dutch and English joint-stock companies and the Industrial Revolution.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
