Region

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Template:Wiktionary Region can be used to mean:

  1. Any considerable and connected part of a space or surface; specifically, a tract of land or sea of considerable but indefinite extent; a country; a district; in a broad sense, a place without special reference to location or extent but viewed as an entity for geographical, social or cultural reasons. The proper techniques of space delimitation covers regionalization.
    the equatorial regions
    the temperate regions
    the polar regions
    the upper regions of the atmosphere
  2. An administrative subdivision of a city, a territory, a country or the European Union.
  3. (historical) Such a division of the city of Rome and of the territory about Rome, of which the number varied at different times; a district, quarter, or ward.
  4. (figuratively) The inhabitants of a region or district of a country.
  5. (anatomy) A place in or a part of the body in any way indicated.
    the abdominal regions
  6. {obsolete} Place; rank; station; dignity.
  7. {obsolete} The space from the earth's surface out to the orbit of the moon: properly called the elemental region.
  8. For the QuickDraw data structure, see QuickDraw.

Regions are conceptual constructs and, thus, may vary among cultures and individuals.

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Administrative regions

The word "region" is taken from the Latin regio, and a number of countries have borrowed the term as the formal name for a type of subnational entity (eg, the región, used in Chile). In English, the word is also used as the conventional translation for equivalent terms in other languages (e.g., the область (oblast), used in Russia alongside with a broader term регион).

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Countries using administrative regions

The following countries use the term "region" (or its cognate) as the name of a type of subnational administrative unit:

The Canadian province of Québec also uses the "administrative region" (région administrative).

Scotland had local government regions from 1975 to 1996.

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Non-first-level administrative regions

The government of the Philippines uses the region (in Filipino, rehiyon) when it's necessary to group provinces, the primary administrative subdivision of the country. this is also the case in Brazil which groups its primary administrative divisions (estados; "states") into grandes regiões (≈"greater regions") for statistical purposes, while Russia uses экономические районы ("economic regions") in a similar way, as do Romania and Venezuela.

The government of Singapore makes use of regions for its own administrative purposes. Similarly, England and Serbia also use the name or have attempted to popularize its use.

The following countries use an administrative subdivision conventionally referred to as a region in English:

  • Bulgaria, which uses the област (oblast)
  • Russia, which uses the область (oblast')
  • Ukraine, which uses the область (oblast')
  • Slovakia (kraj)

China has five 自治区 (zìzhìqū) and two 特別行政區 (or 特别行政区; tèbiéxíngzhèngqū) which are translated as "autonomous region" and "special administrative region", respectively.

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Traditional or informal regions

The traditional territorial divisions of some countries are also commonly rendered in English as "regions". These informal divisions do not form the basis of the modern administrative divisions of these countries, but still define and delimit local regional identity and sense of belonging. Examples include:

See also Lists of unofficial regions by country.
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Geographical regions

A region can also be used for a geographical area; with this usage, there is an implied distinctiveness about the area that defines it. Such a distinction is often made on the basis of a historical, political, or cultural cohesiveness that separates the region from its neighbours.

Geographical regions can be found within a country (e.g., the Midlands, in England), or transnationally (e.g., the Middle East).

Similarly, the United Nations Statistics Division has devised a scheme for classifying macrogeographic regions (continents), continental subregions, and selected socioeconomic groupings.

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Examples of geographical regions

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See also

da:Region de:Region et:Regioon es:Región fr:Région id:Wilayah it:Regione lt:Regionas nl:Regio no:Region nn:Region pl:Region (geografia) pt:Região ru:Регионы simple:Region sv:Region

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