Showing results for nation-building. Search instead for strategic foundation-building.

nation-building

British

noun

the advocacy of national solidarity in South Africa in the post-apartheid era

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

“There was a lot of nation-building happening during World War II,” said Ujammiugaq Engell, leader of Nuuk Local Museum.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

"We will join the nation-building effort led by Tarique Rahman," Md Fazlur Rahman, 45, told AFP.

From Barron's • Feb. 13, 2026

A bureaucrat, who works closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently said that the government was actively encouraging overseas Indians to return and contribute to nation-building.

From BBC • Oct. 5, 2025

At the founding, and the court endorsed a regime of nation-building in which the mix between government and markets supported an emerging economic nation.

From Slate • May 30, 2024

We have few reserves of intellectual life to draw upon when we come to the mighty labor of nation-building.

From The National Being Some Thoughts on an Irish Polity by Russell, George William

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023