Plural of “country”

The plural of country is countries.

Why

"Country" comes from Old French "contree," ultimately from Latin "contra," meaning "against" or "opposite" — the word originally described the land lying opposite, or spread out before, a person's view, a surprisingly abstract origin for a word that now names entire nations. Since a consonant, r, sits directly before the final y, the word converts that y to i and adds -es, yielding "countries."

That original sense of land "lying before one" gradually narrowed first to a region or district, and later specifically to an independent nation, while a separate, related sense — "the country" meaning rural land as opposed to a city — preserves an even older, broader meaning of simply the land spread out around a viewer. The Latin root "contra" also underlies English "contrary" and "counter-," a family of words all built around the core idea of something positioned opposite or facing something else, even though "country" is by far the most semantically distant descendant of that original spatial meaning.

Usage note

"Countries" is standard when discussing nations ("forty countries attended the summit"); the rural sense ("we drove out to the country") is normally treated as an uncountable mass noun and doesn't typically appear in the plural at all.

"Country" as a musical genre ("country music") developed as a 20th-century American commercial and cultural label, an entirely separate figurative branch from either the political or rural senses, though it likely draws on the rural sense's association with agricultural, small-town life. International organizations like the United Nations maintain carefully defined lists of recognized "countries," and disputes over which territories qualify (given ongoing questions of sovereignty and international recognition) show that even a seemingly simple, everyday plural noun can carry real political weight in formal diplomatic contexts. Diplomatic and legal writing sometimes prefers the more neutral "state" over "country" specifically because "state" avoids implying anything about a territory's cultural or ethnic identity, a distinction that matters in sensitive international contexts.

Common real mistakes

As with other words in this family, "countrys" is the main misspelling to avoid; a separate, meaning-based error is treating "country" in its rural sense as countable ("several countries of open farmland"), when "countryside" is the more natural word for that idea. Writers should also be careful distinguishing "country" (a sovereign nation) from "state" or "nation," terms that overlap heavily but carry distinct legal and political meanings, particularly in contexts like federal systems where "state" refers to a sub-national unit rather than an independent country.

The wider pattern

The same y-to-i-plus-es conversion governs "city" and "family," and "country"'s split into a countable political sense (several countries) and an uncountable rural sense (life out in the country) shows how one word's grammar can shift depending entirely on which meaning is in play.

Examples

• Representatives from over one hundred countries attended the conference.
• The treaty was signed by seven neighboring countries.
• She has traveled to more than thirty countries.
• Trade agreements between the two countries expanded significantly.
• Several countries pledged aid after the earthquake.
• The report ranked countries by life expectancy.
• Athletes from dozens of countries competed in the games.
• The airline added new routes to three additional countries.
• Border disputes between the countries lasted for decades.
• Both countries agreed to reduce tariffs on imported goods.
• The summit brought delegates from over sixty countries together.
• Both countries share a long, mostly peaceful border.
• The two countries restored diplomatic ties after years apart.
• Aid poured into countries affected by the drought.
• The report ranked countries by renewable energy use.
• Trade between the countries grew steadily each year.
• The border between the countries reopened after negotiations.
• Officials from both countries met to finalize the treaty.
• Scholars compared voting laws across several countries.