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say it: NASH-uh-nuhl
national is an adjective and noun meaning "of or relating to or belonging to a nation or country". It carries 8 recorded senses.
of or relating to or belonging to a nation or country
“national hero”
“national anthem”
“a national landmark”
limited to or in the interests of a particular nation
“national interests”
“isolationism is a strictly national policy”
concerned with or applicable to or belonging to an entire nation or country
“the national government”
“national elections”
“of national concern”
“the national highway system”
“national forests”
characteristic of or peculiar to the people of a nation
“a national trait”
of or relating to nationality
“national origin”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for national come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.