town
noun
Simple meaning
a place with homes, shops, and its own local government
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
townIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtaʊn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A settlement; an area with residential districts, shops and amenities, and its own local government; especially one larger than a village and smaller than a city, historically enclosed by a fence or walls, with total populations ranging from several hundred to more than a hundred thousand (as of the early 21st century)
Any more urbanized centre than the place of reference.
The residents (as opposed to gown: the students, faculty, etc.) of a community which is the site of a university.
A major city, especially one where the speaker is located.
A community and ward in Merthyr Tydfil borough county borough, Wales, in Merthyr Tydfil town centre.
(England, traditional, in phrases such as 'in Town' or 'to Town', also without capital) London, especially central London.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A settlement; an area with residential districts, shops and amenities, and its own local government; especially one larger than a village and smaller than a city, historically enclosed by a fence or walls, with total populations ranging from several hundred to more than a hundred thousand (as of the early 21st century)
Used this way, town is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It stays understated rather than dramatic. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Mild
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use town
- “The whole town cheered the team.”noun
- “The town is responsible for snow removal.”noun
- “They drive through town on their way to work.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An administrative division of a county.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Coal gas manufactured for domestic and industrial use.
An official who made public announcements.
The official who keeps a town's records.
A government building that houses administrative offices of a town government.
A house that is one of a row of identical houses situated side by side and sharing common walls.
Government of a town by an assembly of the qualified voters.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- municipalitynoun
- populationnoun
- censusnoun
- communenoun
- provincenoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: settlement
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.