Definition of "Korea"

Korea

/kəˈɹi.ə/

proper noun
countable and uncountable, plural Koreas
1. A nation in East Asia. Since World War II, Korea has been divided into two sovereign states, commonly called South Korea and North Korea.
  Quotations
  After the death of the empreſs Papûſha he had been baniſhed into Korea, from whence he was removed to Quey-lin Fû, the capital of Quang-ſi.
  1780, “The Hiſtory of Jenghîz Khan's Succeſſors in Tartary and China”, in The Modern Part of an Univerſal History from the Earlieſt Accounts to the Preſent Time‎, volume IV, page 297
  Then I told the delegates of the trip which I had taken with my wife, Jane, into Korea on the previous Thanksgiving, and of how I had celebrated my seventy-fourth birthday on the snowy mountains of Korea, eating from a mess kit with the men in uniform.
  1954, Alben W. Barkley, “What Happened at Chicago”, in That Reminds Me‎, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, page 246
2. (informal) The Republic of Korea (South Korea).
3. (informal) The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).
4. (informal) The Korean Peninsula.