What is the difference between a nation and a state, and can a group of states combine to become a nation?

what keeps a state from becoming nations?? Taking that Nation is defined as a large ethnic group or social grouping of people sharing common customs, languages, heritages, and common feelings.What is the difference between a nation and a state, and can a group of states combine to become a nation?
The state is a political and geopolitical entity; the nation is a cultural and/or ethnic entity.





A nation is a body of people who share a real or imagined common history, culture, language or ethnic origin, who typically inhabit a particular country or territory.The development and conceptualisation of the nation is closely related to the development of modern industrial states and nationalist movements in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, although nationalists would trace nations into the past along an uninterrupted lines of historical narrative.





And yes, a group of States can combine to become a nation.What is the difference between a nation and a state, and can a group of states combine to become a nation?
If you are in the US, it must be obvious to you.





A state, in simplest form, is a sub-section of anything. (ie; a nation)





A nation consists of states (though may be called differently, like provinces in Canada.)





When a state has enough power and breaks off (like Taiwan from China) it becomes an Independent State, because no other country recognizes it's existence yet.





This independent state is known as a Sovereign state. If enough nations, the UN, the former host country, or a combination of these recognizes the new country, then the 'state' becomes a new nation.