Definition of "nation"

nation¹

/ˈneɪ̯.ʃən/

noun
plural nations
1. A historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common language, territory, economic life, ethnicity and/or psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.
  Quotations
  All the ends of the woꝛld ſhall remember, and turne vnto the Lord: and all the kinreds of the nations ſhall woꝛſhip befoꝛe thee.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Psalms 22:27
2. (international law) A sovereign state.
  Quotations
  It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […] perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.
  2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 26, page 36
3. (chiefly historical) An association of students based on its members' birthplace or ethnicity.
4. (obsolete) A great number; a great deal.
  Quotations
  […] and what a nation of herbs he had procured to mollify her humours, &c. &c. […]
  1762, Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, new edition, volume V, Altenburgh: G. E. Richter, published 1772, page 57
5. In North America, an Indigenous people and their federally recognized territory.

nation²

/ˈneɪ̯.ʃən/

noun
1. (rare) Damnation.
adverb
1. (rare, dialectal) Extremely, very.
  Quotations
  “Looky here, Bilgewater,” he says, “I’m nation sorry for you, but you ain’t the only person that’s had troubles like that.”
  1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XIX, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], page 186