This answer is incorrect, England is the name of a single country while the United Kingdom is a group of countries that also includes England. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom

@JoeW not in the US sense of the word "country." "England" is not sovereign. United Kingdom is the state. The "country" of England has roughly the same relationship to the UK as the "Russian Republic" had to the USSR. They are administrative units without sovereignty, but which (for historic reasons) had a defining influence on shaping the sovereign state which contains them. This answer is absolutely correct.

And here is the wiki for the country of England. "England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England

the character of what is or isn't The Russian Federation is also a subject of dispute.

You would have been much better (and escaped the downvotes, I'm not one of them) off had you used "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" vs "United Kingdom". Those are different names for the same country, except one is more verbose.

"country" has many senses. It's hardly reasonable to tell the British that they can't use the word as they are and that "England" isn't a country. They use the word "country" to refer to the whole UK and also to its components. There's nothing wrong with that. The US, after all, is a state in addition to being made up of states. Words have multiple senses.

@phoog I was replying to the comment which took an issue with my saying that "England is not a country." In the US sense of the word "country," the administrative unit of the UK, denoted as "the country of England," is not a country. The British can (as you point out) use the English language as they please. But so can we, the Americans.

@wrod. England is (perhaps) a constituent country (as are Greenland and Aruba) as opposed to a sovereign country. Or perhaps not. In actual UK legislation, it's simply called a "part" of the UK, not a country at all. Either way, this is a nuance in all varieties of English, not a British/American difference.

The discussion about use of the word "country" is (IMHO) a red herring here. The issue is the analogy: "Russia" and "Russian Federation" refer to the same thing; "UK" and "England" do not.

@SteveMelnikoff "Russia" and "Russian Federation" definitely do not refer to the same thing in all contexts. They do in some contexts. The same is true of "UK" and "England."

@DavidHammen "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" v.s. "Britain" might be a better analogy.

@wrod UK and England never refer to the same thing as England is a part of the UK and there are 3 other countries that are part of it. If you are talking to someone from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and refer to their country as England you will quickly find out that they consider that offensive.

@wrod No need in being linguistically prescriptive in an international forum. England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are states in American English. British English they're countries. People often forget that the United States is comprised of 50 countries, each with their own militaries. All you're really doing is attempting to enforce strict cultural definitions to words that describe administrative entities that frequently don't perfectly line up from region to region. The Vatican is a kingdom, city, state, and country.

@wizzwizz4 Northern Ireland is not part of (Great) Britain; it's part of the United Kingdom. Great Britain is composed of the countries of England, Scotland, and Wales. The United Kingdom is composed of Great Britain and the country of Northern Ireland. However, people do tend to use England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom interchangeably, the way people tend to use Holland and the Netherlands interchangeably.

@CJDennis "Britain" to include Northern Ireland is (in my experience) more common than "England" including Northern Ireland. Strictly speaking, neither are correct, but "Great Britain is the name of the largest of the British Isles" is practically trivia, whereas "England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom" is much better-known.

Someone who points out that Y is the successor state to X does not thereby claim that Y "is the same thing as" X.

@wrod: "UK" and "England" never refer to the same thing. If people are using "England" to mean "UK", then frankly they're just wrong. :-) (Using "Great Britain" to mean "UK" is also wrong, but very common, especially in the US, so I guess we'll have to let that slide.)

+1 Precisely: Russia is not necessarily the same as Russian Federation, and not the same as Russian government. Just like Russians is not the same as Russian citizens, which in turn is not the same as Putin supporters.

@SteveMelnikoff re: "UK" and "England" never... Yes, yes, I recall... This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. But hell, what did Shakespeare know about England? As the domain of the crown (aka "realm"), "England" is the historical name. But the crown's legal domain is the UK.

@wrod Wikipedia tells me that Richard II was written around 1595. Shakespeare lived in the Kingdom of England, which included Wales, but excluded Scotland and Ireland. England (including Wales) and Scotland combined in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, which in turn combined with Ireland in 1801 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

@wrod: What is now the Republic of Ireland split off in 1922, leaving the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. My point is that "England", "Great Britain" and "United Kingdom" have always referred to different things.

@SteveMelnikoff I don't think you fully appreciate the phrase "depends on the context." Idiomatic use can retain meaning which used to be accurate in some contexts but becomes inaccurate in other contexts. But its prolonged use makes it an idiom which is universally understood and continues to be used. For example, I bet you the phrase "the Queen of England" will continue to be used even though the UK's monarch is now a king and monarch's domain is not exclusive to England. I'll also bet that no more than 3% of English-speaking people outside of the UK will be able to name his full title.

@DavidS "England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland are states in American English": that is incorrect. You are confusing the differing terminology of the US and UK political systems with differences in the language. The US has its states and the UK its constituent countries regardless of where the person you're talking to is from.

@wrod are you saying that Shakespeare used "England" to refer to the United Kingdom?