Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - nationality

 noun  (plural -ties)  Date: 1691  1. national character  2. nationalism 1  3.  a. national status; specifically a legal relationship involving allegiance on the part of an individual and usually protection on the part of the state  b. membership in a particular nation  4. political independence or existence as a separate nation  5.  a. a people having a common origin, tradition, and language and capable of forming or actually constituting a nation-state  b. an ethnic group constituting one element of a larger unit (as a nation)