Canada

The word “Canada” means a country in North America, with Ottawa as its capital and Toronto as its largest city. In plain terms, the North American country known for its vast size, bilingual heritage, and cold winters.

“Canada” is pronounced KA-nuh-duh (/ˈkænədə/ in IPA).

Here is “Canada” used in a sentence: “They emigrated to Canada in the 1990s.”

“Canada” is a noun.

The word “Canada” comes from French. From French Canada, borrowed from a Laurentian Iroquoian word kanata meaning "village" or "settlement" — originally referring to a single settlement, not the whole country.

“Canada” is a very common word in modern English.

The capital of Canada is Ottawa, in the province of Ontario. Although Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are all larger, Ottawa was chosen as the seat of government in the 19th century, partly for its position between English- and French-speaking regions. It houses Parliament and the main federal institutions.

Toronto is Canada's largest city by population and its main financial and cultural centre, home to several million people across its metropolitan area. It sits on the shore of Lake Ontario. Montreal and Vancouver follow as other major cities, but Toronto leads in both size and economic weight.

Canada has two official languages, English and French, and both appear on federal documents and signs. French is especially dominant in Quebec. Alongside these, many Indigenous languages are spoken, and decades of immigration have made languages such as Mandarin, Punjabi and Spanish common in Canadian homes.

Canada occupies the northern part of North America, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific in the west and up to the Arctic in the north. It shares the world's longest land border with the United States and is the second-largest country on Earth by area.