town.
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)
Meaning & usage
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.
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.
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.
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.
An interconnected maze of tunnels in which prairie dogs live.
A townhouse.
A municipal organization, such as a corporation, defined by the laws of the entity of which it is a part.
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.
A farm or farmstead; also, a court or farmyard.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *duh₂-nós? Proto-Celtic *dūnombor. Proto-Germanic *tūną Proto-West Germanic *tūn Old English tūn Middle English toun English 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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.