故国|ここくkokoku[1]atamadaka (head-high)

1. nounone's native land
   その亡命者ぼうめいしゃは故国ここくへの思おもいに胸むねを焦こがした。↗

   The exile yearned for his home.

• Synonym母国ぼこくWrittenWritten word for the country where you were born, often used while living abroad; 「故国」 carries a literary sense of longing for the home one left.
• Synonym祖国そこくWrittenWritten word for the land where one's ancestors have lived for generations, tinged with patriotic feeling; common in ethnic and migrant contexts.
• Synonym本国ほんごくFormalFormal term for the country of one's nationality, also a suzerain or colonial power; legal and diplomatic in flavor.
• Synonym自国じこくNeutralNeutral word for one's own country, frequent in international comparisons such as 「自国の利益」; objective, without 「故国」's emotion.
• Synonym生国しょうごくWrittenThe country or place of one's birth; an old-fashioned word, rarely used today.
• SynonymマザーランドWrittenLoanword meaning one's motherland or homeland; uncommon, appearing mostly in song and work titles.
• Relatedお国おくにCasualColloquial, polite way to speak of someone's home region; also refers to Japan as our own country.
• Related出生国NeutralPlain, neutral term for the country of one's birth; it states the fact without the homesick feeling of 「故国」.
• Antonym外国がいこくNeutralAntonym: a foreign country, the counterpart of one's own 「故国」.
• Antonym異国いこくWrittenWritten antonym for a foreign land, with a sense of strangeness and exotic distance; opposed to 「故国」.
• Antonym他国たこくNeutralAntonym for another country or a place far from home; opposed to 「故国」.

Use 「故国」 for the homeland you long for after leaving it — a word with literary color. Abroad, say 「母国」; with patriotic feeling, 「祖国」; objectively, 「自国」. 「出生国」 is the plain birth country, 「本国」 the formal/legal term. Antonyms: 「外国」「異国」「他国」.

Usage comparisons are AI-assisted and cross-checked by multiple models; for study reference only

1. 自分じぶんの故郷こきょうである国くに。