(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a large section of a country which has its own administration.
...the Algarve, Portugal’s southernmost ~.
N-COUNT
2.
The ~s are all the parts of a country except the part where the capital is situated.
The government plans to transfer some 30,000 government jobs from Paris to the ~s.
N-PLURAL: usu the N
3.
If you say that a subject or activity is a particular person’s ~, you mean that this person has a special interest in it, a special knowledge of it, or a special responsibility for it.
Industrial research is the ~ of the Department of Trade and Industry.
N-SING: with poss