Country seems to refer to the territory (France, Germany, …) on which a state (the French Republic, the FRG, …) is established:
A country is a distinct area of land in the world with a government that functions as a sovereign state, an unrecognized state, a constituent country, or a dependent territory.
But then you need to be very careful if talking to a Us american. They would hear “state” and think about their states - which are more like the “provinces” of most other states. Then it is better to use the term country, where Usa is one, and Russia is one, and in the EU there are 27, and in the world about 200.
Country seems to refer to the territory (France, Germany, …) on which a state (the French Republic, the FRG, …) is established:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country
Thus, it’s its states which constitute the EU, not their countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
But then you need to be very careful if talking to a Us american. They would hear “state” and think about their states - which are more like the “provinces” of most other states. Then it is better to use the term country, where Usa is one, and Russia is one, and in the EU there are 27, and in the world about 200.
It’ll be a great day when that’s something big enough to worry about.