developing country
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English
Noun
developing country (plural developing countries)
- (economics) A country with low to medium income although substantial industrialization; (sometimes derogatory) a country with less industrial base, and thus often consequently widespread poverty and low Human Development Index (HDI).
- Antonyms: HIC, developed country
- Hypernym: country
- Near-synonym: LMIC
Usage notes
Although the terms developing country and developed country remain in wide use as of 2025, some style guides (for example, the AMA Manual of Style in its 11th edition) deprecate them because they imply a false dichotomy, when development is in reality a never-ending/always-changing spectrum of ongoing effort and degrees of attainment; for example, none of the G7 countries has finished its development (as the participial adjective developed implies). Some style guides discourage their use in favor of less biased terms such as "high-income countries" and "low- and middle-income countries".
Coordinate terms
Translations
country with an emerging economy
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References
- ^ Editorial Style Guide, Health and Human Rights Journal
- ^ Global Terminology Considerations, Restored CDC (originally from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- “developing country”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.