micronation

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micronation

/ˈmaɪkɹə(ʊ)ˌneɪʃn̩/ UK
/ˈmaɪkɹoʊˌneɪʃən/ US

Rhymes with -eɪʃən

Where it comes from

From micro- (prefix meaning ‘very small’) + nation (“country, sovereign state; historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common economic life, ethnicity, language, religion, and/or territory”).

Sense 1 (“non-autonomous entity that claims to be a sovereign state”) was coined by the editors of the The State Journal (Lansing, Michigan) in a March 11, 1973, article (see the quotation) which republished a January 21, 1973, article by the American journalist Philip J. Hilts (1947–2022) published in Potomac Magazine, the Sunday supplement to The Washington Post, with alterations. The original article referred to the unrecognized political entities listed in the Ephemeral States file, a collection of physical micronational records maintained by the Office of the Geographer of the United States Department of State, launched in 1933. It did not contain the word micronation; this only appeared in the State Journal version of the article.

noun micronations · micro-nation

A non-autonomous entity, generally small and having few residents, which claims to be a sovereign state and mimics the actions of a state (with varying degrees of seriousness), but lacks any legal recognition and exists only in theory or in the mind of its creator; a micronational entity. For every dreamer there is somewhere a doer, and in the realm [of] the strange micro-nations, the Republic of Minerva has plunged a bit ahead of the nebulous status of most others.
Similar: countercountry, ephemeral state, microcountry, micropatria, MN, mnation, mrnation, model country, nationette, project nation · Opposite: country, macronation, nation, sovereign state
Synonym of microstate (“a sovereign state which has a very small land area and population”). The absence of any action by the United Nations on the crisis in Nigeria is quote puzzling, […] Also, since Nigeria is the cornerstone of the economy of West Africa, many countries around its perimeter will suffer, including many of the "micro-nations" of the U.N. which were the biggest supporters o
Similar: mini-country, minination, ministate, nationette, microstate
uncommon A very small nation (“historically constituted, stable community of people, formed based on a common economic life, ethnicity, language, religion, and/or territory, and manifested in a common culture”) not amounting to a sovereign state. Careful groundwork had given Germany a highly unified micronation within the boundaries of Argentina, in many ways better prepared and better organized than the Argentine nation itself.
Opposite: macronation

Thesaurus

noun

Translations

Every language

noun non-autonomous entity which claims to be a sovereign state but lacks any legal recognition

Español	micronación
한국어	마이크로네이션 maikeuroneisyeon
日本語	ミクロネーション mikuronēshon
中文	微型國家 /微型国家 wēixíngguójiā
हिन्दी	सूक्ष्मराष्ट्र sūkṣmarāṣṭra
Português	micronação
Français	micronation
Deutsch	Mikronation
Italiano	micronazione
Ελληνικά	μικροέθνος mikroéthnos
Română	micronațiune
Русский	виртуа́льное госуда́рство virtuálʹnoje gosudárstvo
Tiếng Việt	vi quốc gia
العربية	أُمّة مِجْهَرِيَّة ʔumma mijhariyya
עברית	מדינה לכאורה

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MLA

"micronation." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/micronation. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

APA

micronation. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/micronation

Chicago

"micronation." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/micronation.

BibTeX

@misc{micronation_2026,
  title = {micronation},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/micronation},
  urldate = {2026-11-07}
}