Editing Seventeen Provinces (section)

==Netherlands==
{{main|Netherlands (terminology)}}
[[File:Sitting Leo Belgicus - Visscher.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Leo Belgicus]] map]]
To distinguish between the older and larger Low Countries of the Netherlands from the current country of the Netherlands, Dutch speakers usually drop the plural for the latter. They speak of ''Nederland'' in the singular for the current country and of ''de Nederlanden'' in the plural for the integral domains of Charles V.

In other languages, this has not been adopted, though the larger area is sometimes known as the [[Low Countries]] in English.

The fact that the term ''Netherlands'' has such different historical meanings can sometimes lead to difficulties in expressing oneself correctly. For example, [[composer]]s from the 16th century are often said to belong to the ''[[Franco-Flemish School|Dutch School]]'' (''Nederlandse School''). Although they themselves would not have objected to that term at that time, nowadays it may wrongly create the impression that they were from the current Netherlands. In fact, they were almost exclusively from current Belgium.