town

/ˈtæʊ̯n//ˈtaʊ̯n/

town 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).

Image: Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

town (countable and uncountable, plural towns)

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)
- This town is really dangerous because these youngsters have Beretta handguns.
- Apparently the first reference to the making of the town walls of Stafford (it appears pretty clear that the town was never surrounded by one continuous wall or stockade, but partly by one and partly by the other) occurs in the Patent Rolls, from which we find that in 1225 permission was granted by...1920, Birmingham Archaeological Society, Transactions and Proceedings for the Year, page 142
Any more urbanized centre than the place of reference.
- I'll be in Yonkers, then I'm driving into town to see the Knicks at the Garden tonight.
- Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
(UK, historical) A rural settlement in which a market was held at least once a week.
The residents (as opposed to gown: the students, faculty, etc.) of a community which is the site of a university.
(colloquial) Used to refer to a town or similar entity under discussion.
- Call me when you get to town.
- They put up "lost dog" posters all over town.
A major city, especially one where the speaker is located.
- There's always a business theme, even underlying happy hours. You're never off the clock in this town.2014, Megan R. Wilson, quoting Scott Talbott, “15 places in DC where lobbyists talk turkey”, in The Hill, archived from the original on 22 Jul 2019
An interconnected maze of tunnels in which prairie dogs live.
(informal) A townhouse.
- Detached houses always sell faster than towns or semis.2002, Garth Turner, The Little Book of Real Estate Wisdom, Toronto, O.N.: Key Porter Books, →ISBN, page 38
- It's not just market forces that are bringing out the semis and towns. Municipalities are requiring developers to build a mix of homes into their new planned communities, partly out of a concession to make more efficient use of virgin land, but also to address the need for more affordable housing...2004 June 11, Derek Raymaker, “Suburbs add semi-detached to the mix”, in The Globe and Mail, Toronto, O.N.: The Woodbridge Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 May 2023
A municipal organization, such as a corporation, defined by the laws of the entity of which it is a part.
(obsolete) An enclosure which surrounded the mere homestead or dwelling of the lord of the manor; by extension, the whole of the land which constituted the domain.
(Scotland, UK, dialectal, obsolete) A farm or farmstead; also, a court or farmyard.

Proper noun capitalized: Town

Town (countable and uncountable, plural Towns)

A surname.
A community and ward in Merthyr Tydfil borough county borough, Wales, in Merthyr Tydfil town centre.
(England, also, traditional) London, especially central London.
(Philippines, abbreviation, colloquial, ellipsis, southern Metro Manila) Ellipsis of Alabang Town Center: a mall in Alabang, Muntinlupa, Metro Manila, Philippines.

Synonyms:

ATC

town meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

town in Hindi

settlement: शहर śahar, नगर nagar

town in Tamil

settlement: நகரம் nakaram

town in Marathi

settlement: शहर śahar, नगर nagar

town in Urdu

settlement: شَہَر śahar, نَگَر nagar

More languagesFewer languages

town in Bengali: শহর śohor, নগর nogor
town in Telugu: పట్టణము paṭṭaṇamu, పట్నము paṭnamu
town in Malayalam: നഗരം nagaraṁ
town in Kannada: ನಗರ nagara
town in Punjabi: ਸ਼ਹਿਰ śahir
town in Gujarati: શહેર śaher, નગર nagar
town in Odia: ନଗର nagara, ସହର sahara
town in Sanskrit: नगर nagara
town in Sinhala: නගරය nagaraya
town in Assamese: নগৰ nôgôr, চহৰ sohor
town in Pashto: ښار ẍâr
town in Tagalog: bayan, syudad
town in Arabic: مَدِينَة madīna, قَرْيَة qarya, بَلْدَة balda
town in Malay: bandar
town in Indonesian: kotamadya, kota
town in Thai: เมือง mʉʉang, พารา paa-raa, นคร ná-kɔɔn, เชียง chiiang
town in Vietnamese: tỉnh, thành phố, thị trấn
town in Myanmar: မြို့ mrui.

Examples of town in a sentence

My apartment is five minutes from the center of town.
It's quiet in this part of town.
Walls separated town and country through much of the early modern period.2001, Thomas Brennan, “Town and country in France , 1550–1750”, in S. R. Epstein, editor, Town and Country in Europe, 1300-1800, page 250:
Fortifications and town walls clearly highlight the central military significance of towns.2011, Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown, Slovakia in History, page 42:
As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast.2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, archived from the original on...
The medieval town, at least in continental Europe, was walled, and without its defences it was no town.2014, Norman John Greville Pounds, An Economic History of Medieval Europe, page 228:

All 40 example sentences with town

Synonyms of town

Forms of town

Noun
plural	towns
alternative form	tahn
alternative form	tawn
alternative Northumbria	toon
alternative form (obsolete)	toune
alternative form (obsolete)	towne
Proper noun
plural	Towns

Plural of town: towns

Origin of town

Inherited from Middle English toun, from Old English tūn, from Proto-West Germanic *tūn, from Proto-Germanic *tūną, borrowed from Proto-Celtic *dūnom (“stronghold, rampart”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *duh₂-nós (“lasting, durable”), from *dewh₂- (“to last”) + *-nós. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tuun (“garden”), West Frisian tún (“enclosure, garden”), Dutch tuin (“garden”), German Low German Tuun (“fence”), German Zaun (“fence”), Danish tun, Swedish tun and Norwegian Nynorsk tun (“yard”); also archaic Welsh din (“hill”), Irish dún (“fortress”). Doublet of dun. See also -ton and tine (“to enclose”).

From the noun town.

Words formed from town

Phrases with town

177 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with town

19 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about town

What does town mean?: Town means 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).
What is town in Hindi?: Town in Hindi is शहर (śahar), नगर (nagar). See Town meaning in Hindi.
How do you use town in a sentence?: My apartment is five minutes from the center of town.
What part of speech is town?: Town can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce town?: Town is pronounced /ˈtaʊ̯n/ (UK).
What is the plural of town?: The plural of town is towns.

Words near town in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: town (page history and authors); Town (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-town.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-town.wav.

Cite this entry: “town.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/town. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.