mother country

noun

Definition of mother countrynext
1
as in birthplace
a place of origin Greece can boast to being the mother country of democracy

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in home
the land of one's birth, residence, or citizenship even after decades of living in their adopted nation, they maintained a strong attachment to the mother country

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of mother country Men arrived armed with Western money, built up commercial operations, exploited the local population and sent most of the profits back to the mother country. — Hettie O'Brien, The Dial, 21 Apr. 2026 In effect, the mother country turned to its thriving colonies to pay the bill for its European wars. — Adam Gopnik, New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2026 This founding tenet of the Bel Paese now looks set to change — ending diaspora dreams of returning to the mother country, and meaning that Italians who move abroad risk denying citizenship to their descendants. — Julia Buckley, CNN Money, 14 Mar. 2026 The world premiere by Burlingame playwright Geetha Reddy starts off as an HR dispute about sexism at an aerospace company, only to tap into centuries-old resentments dating from Indian immigrant employees’ mother country. — Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for mother country
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mother country
  1. birthplace
  2. home
  3. cradle
  4. country
Noun
  • Or by the Austrian town of Braunau am Inn, where no one knew quite what to do with Hitler’s birthplace.
    — Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor, 26 Oct. 2026
  • Aside from electoral politics, the poll showed widespread uneasiness about the economy and the future in communities that have been seen as the archetypal birthplace of the American dream.
    — Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of birthplace
Noun
  • Mubarak Bekheit, an aid worker in Darfur, told the AP by phone on Wednesday that many people remained missing and some bodies had yet to be recovered from homes in the area after the strike hit a civilian neighborhood.
    — YASSIR ABDALLA, Arkansas Online, 29 Oct. 2026
  • Bickelhaupt escaped the home and called a ride-sharing service to the airport, intending to travel back to Denver, Colorado, where she was born.
    — Zoey Thomas, Sun Sentinel, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of home
Noun
  • The federal voucher program is the cradle of the Great American Heist.
    — Denise Forte, Baltimore Sun, 21 Oct. 2026
  • While the device is in the cradle, the red battery LED blinks slowly during charging and is solid when fully charged.
    — John R. Delaney, PC Magazine, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of cradle
Noun
  • On foreign policy, Lula has worked to boost the political influence of countries in the Global South as a founding member of the BRICS group, a grouping of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa.
    — Catherine Osborn, NPR, 26 Oct. 2026
  • Meanwhile, Elon Musk, who has spent more than four hundred million dollars on Republican campaigns this election cycle, slowed Ukraine’s access to his Starshield satellite network, leaving that country more vulnerable to Russian attacks.
    — Benjamin Wallace-Wells, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of country

Browse Nearby Words

mother countries
mother country
mothered
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Cite this Entry

“Mother country.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20country. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

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