What are: province, territory, protectorate, state...?
Often a country will have regions called "provinces" or "states". Other times they are called "territories" and "protectorates".
- Is there a generic term for these words?
- Is there a full list of words that belong to this group?
- What makes them different from each other?
A good general name for the entire group of such regions would be administrative division. The linked Wikipedia article has a comprehensive list, which also includes towns and cities, neighborhoods, an the like. The differences between these divisions all come down to:
- Size of the region
- Type of government
- Local language/naming conventions
ISO 3166-2:2020 is "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 2: Country subdivision". So you can assume that "subdivison" is a neutral and accepted term.
There are several questions in this question.
I don't know if there is a specific term for these words. I'll say "region words" for now.
As for a list, I can add
- barony
- canton
- city
- commissary
- county
- department
- division
- district
- dominion
- duchy
- earldom
- empire
- governorate
- intendancy
- kingdom
- municipality
- parish
- prefecture
- principality
- province
- region
- shire
- state
- territory
- town
- township
- village
- ward
The various definitions of these words tends to depend on which nation is using them. In Canada we have provinces and territories; they have different roles and their governments derive their authority from different sources.
Our provinces are similar to US states, but our constitution is very different and so the provinces have different rights and responsibilities than the states do.
RE part 3 of your question: A thorough discussion would veer from "language" into "politics" and "geography", but some high-level comments:
Different subdivisions exist at different levels. For example, the United States is divided into "states", "commonwealths", "territories", and one "district". Each state is further subdivided into "counties", "divisions", or "parishes". In the states I've spent most of my life in, counties are further sub-divided into "townships". (I don't know off the top of my head how many states have townships versus some other subdivision.)
Different subdivisions have different legal statuses. To again use the U.S. as an example, citizens of states and commonwealths get representatives in Congress and can vote for president. Citizens of the district do not get representatives but can vote for president. Citizens of territories neither have representatives nor can vote for president. On the other hand, citizens of territories don't have to pay federal income tax while the others do. Etc.
I'm just using the U.S. as my example because I live here. Other countries have similar schemes in the sense of having multiple levels and different legal statuses, but the names and details vary pretty widely.