TOWN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Town mean? 

• TOWN (noun)
  The noun TOWN has 4 senses:

1. an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city

2. the people living in a municipality smaller than a city

3. an administrative division of a county

4. United States architect who was noted for his design and construction of truss bridges (1784-1844)

  Familiarity information: TOWN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TOWN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Context example:

they drive through town on their way to work

Hypernyms ("town" is a kind of...):

municipality (an urban district having corporate status and powers of self-government)

Meronyms (parts of "town"):

city limit; city limits (the limits of the area occupied by a city or town)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "town"):

burg (colloquial American term for a town)

boom town (a town enjoying sudden prosperity)

cow town; cowtown (a small town in a cattle-raising area of western North America)

ghost town (a deserted settlement (especially in western United States))

hometown (the town (or city) where you grew up or where you have your principal residence)

Main Street (any small town (or the people who inhabit it); generally used to represent parochialism and materialism (after a novel by Sinclair Lewis))

market town (a (usually small) town where a public market is held at stated times)

Instance hyponyms:

Jalalabad (a town in eastern Afghanistan (east of Kabul))

Batna (a town in north central Algeria)

Djanet (a desert town in southeastern Algeria)

Hippo; Hippo Regius (an ancient Numidian town in northwestern Africa adjoining present-day Annaba in northeastern Algeria)

Reggane (a town in central Algeria)

Timgad (an ancient town founded by the Romans; noted for extensive and well-preserved ruins)

Timimoun (a town in central Algeria in the Atlas Mountains)

Nogales (a town in northern Mexico on the border of Arizona)

Santa Maria del Tule (a town in southeastern Mexico near Oaxaca; site of Ahuehuete, a giant Montezuma cypress)

Pilsen; Plzen (a town in Czech Republic where Pilsner beer originated)

Austerlitz (a town in Czech Republic; site of the battle of Austerlitz in 1805)

Viborg (a town of Denmark in north central Jutland)

Hamelin; Hameln (a town in northern Germany (near Hanover) that is famous as the setting for the legend of the Pied Piper)

Hohenlinden (a town in Bavaria (near Munich))

Massawa (a port town in Eritrea on an inlet of the Red Sea)

Maarianhamina; Mariehamn (a town that is the chief port of the Aland islands)

Cnossos; Cnossus; Knossos (an ancient town on Crete where Bronze Age culture flourished from about 2000 BC to 1400 BC)

Actium (an ancient town on a promontory in western Greece)

Plataea (a former town in Boeotia; site of a battle between the Greeks and Persians in 479 BC)

Stagira; Stagirus (an ancient town of Greece where Aristotle was born)

Accho; Acre; Akka; Akko (a town and port in northwestern Israel in the eastern Mediterranean)

Nazareth (a historic town in northern Israel that is mentioned in the Gospels as the home of Joseph and Mary)

Bayt Lahm; Bethlehem; Bethlehem-Judah; Bethlehem Ephrathah (a small town near Jerusalem on the West Bank of the Jordan River; early home of David and regarded as the place where Jesus was born)

Anzio (a town of central Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea; the Allies established a beachhead at Anzio in World War II)

Tibur; Tivoli (a town twenty miles to the east of Rome (Tibur is the ancient name); a summer resort during the Roman empire; noted for its waterfalls)

Acragas; Agrigento (a town in Italy in southwestern Sicily near the coast; the site of six Greek temples)

Nanaimo (a town in southwestern British Columbia on Vancouver Island to the west of Vancouver)

Churchill (a Canadian town in northern Manitoba on Hudson Bay; important port for shipping grain)

Yellowknife (a town in the Northwest Territories in northern Canada on the Great Slave Lake)

Kingston (a town in southeast Ontario on Lake Ontario near the head of the Saint Lawrence River)

Sault Sainte Marie (a town of southern Ontario opposite northern Michigan)

Dawson (a town in northwestern Canada in the Yukon on the Yukon River; a boom town around 1900 when gold was discovered in the Klondike)

Wagga Wagga (a town on the Murrumbidgee River in New South Wales; agricultural trading center)

Wagram (a town in northeastern Austria)

Aalst (a town in central Belgium)

Waterloo (a town in central Belgium where in 1815 Napoleon met his final defeat)

Bath (a town in southwestern England on the River Avon; famous for its hot springs and Roman remains)

Blackpool (a resort town in Lancashire in northwestern England on the Irish Sea; famous for its tower)

Stratford-on-Avon; Stratford-upon-Avon (a town in central England on the River Avon; birthplace (and burial place) of William Shakespeare)

Sunderland (a port and industrial city in northeastern England)

Hastings (a town in East Sussex just to the south of the place where the battle of Hastings took place)

Canterbury (a town in Kent in southeastern England; site of the cathedral where Thomas a Becket was martyred in 1170; seat of the archbishop and primate of the Anglican Church)

Naseby (a village in western Northamptonshire)

Bangor (a town in southeastern Northern Ireland)

Tara (a village in eastern Ireland (northwest of Dublin); seat of Irish kings until 6th century)

Ayr (a port in southwestern Scotland)

Aberdare (a mining town in southern Wales)

Bangor (a university town in northwestern Wales on the Menai Strait)

Nag Hammadi (a town in Upper Egypt)

Sakkara; Saqqara; Saqqarah (a town in northern Egypt; site of the oldest Egyptian pyramids)

Avignon (a town in southeastern France on the Rhone River; the seat of the papacy from 1309 to 1378 and the residence of antipopes during the Great Schism)

Calais (a town in northern France on the Strait of Dover that serves as a ferry port to England; in 1347 it was captured by the English king Edward III after a long siege and remained in English hands until it was recaptured by the French king Henry II in 1558)

Chablis (a town in north central France noted for white Burgundy wines)

Chartres (a town in northern France that is noted for its Gothic Cathedral)

Cherbourg (a port town in northwestern France on the English Channel; site of a naval base)

Dunkerque; Dunkirk (a seaport in northern France on the North Sea; scene of the evacuation of British forces in 1940 during World War II)

Valenciennes (a town in northeastern France long noted for its lace industry)

Vichy (a town in central France (south of Paris) noted for hot mineral springs; was capital of the unoccupied part of France during World War II)

Vienne (a town in south central France where is 1311-1313 the Roman Catholic Church held one of its councils)

Thule (a town in northwestern Greenland; during World War II a United States naval base was built there)

Monte Carlo (a town and popular resort in the principality of Monaco; famous for its gambling casino)

El Aaium (a town in Morocco near the Atlantic coast)

Cusco; Cuzco (a town in the Andes in southern Peru; formerly the capital of the Inca empire)

Dhahran (an oil town in eastern Saudi Arabia on an inlet from the Persian Gulf; in June 1996 terrorists bombed an apartment complex in Dhahran killing 19 United States soldiers and wounding more than 300 people)

Lubavitch (a town in Belarus that was the center of the Chabad movement for a brief period during the 19th century)

Interlaken (a popular resort town in the Alps in west central Switzerland)

Abydos (an ancient Greek colony on the Asiatic side of the Dardanelles; scene of the legend of Hero and Leander)

Antakiya; Antakya; Antioch (a town in southern Turkey; ancient commercial center and capital of Syria; an early center of Christianity)

Chalcedon; Kadikoy (a former town on the Bosporus (now part of Istanbul); site of the Council of Chalcedon)

Entebbe (a town in southern Uganda on Lake Victoria; site of an international airport (where in 1976 Israeli commandos rescued hostages held aboard a plane by Palestinian hijackers))

Decatur (a town in northern Alabama on the Tennessee River)

Gadsden (an industrial town in north central Alabama)

Selma (a town in central Alabama on the Alabama river; in 1965 it was the center of a drive to register Black voters)

Tuscaloosa (a university town in west central Alabama)

Tuskegee (a town in eastern Alabama)

Nome (a town in western Alaska on the southern coast of the Seward Peninsula; an important center of an Alaskan gold rush at the beginning of the 20th century)

Sitka (a town in southeastern Alaska that was the capital of Russian America and served as the capital of Alaska from 1867 until 1906)

Skagway (a town in southeastern Alaska at the northern end of the Inside Passage; a gateway to the Klondike during the Alaskan gold rush)

Flagstaff (a town in north central Arizona; site of an important observatory)

Nogales (a town in Arizona on the Mexican border opposite Nogales, Mexico)

Prescott (a town in central Arizona)

Yuma (a town in southwestern Arizona on the Colorado River and the California border)

Fayetteville (a university town in northwestern Arkansas in the Ozarks)

Fort Smith (a town in western Arkansas on the Arkansas River at the Oklahoma border)

Hot Springs (a town in west central Arkansas; a health resort noted for thermal springs)

Jonesboro (a town in northeast Arkansas)

Pine Bluff (a town in southeast central Arkansas on the Arkansas River)

Texarkana (a town in southwest Arkansas on the Texas border adjacent to Texarkana, Texas)

Barstow (a town in southeastern California)

Eureka (a town in northwest California on an arm of the Pacific Ocean)

Monterey (a town in western California to the south of San Francisco on a peninsula at the southern end of Monterey Bay)

Palo Alto (a university town in California)

Redding (a town in north central California on the Sacramento River)

San Mateo (a town in California to the south of San Francisco)

San Pablo (a town in western California to the north of Oakland on an arm of San Francisco Bay)

Santa Barbara (a town in southwestern California on the Pacific Ocean)

Santa Cruz (a town in western California on Monterey Bay; a tourist center)

Boulder (a town in north central Colorado; Rocky Mountains resort center and university town)

Farmington (a residential town in central Connecticut)

New London (a town in southeastern Connecticut near Long Island Sound; an important whaling center in the 19th century)

Daytona Beach (a resort town in northeast Florida on the Atlantic coast; hard white beaches have been used for automobile speed trials)

Fort Myers (a town in southwest Florida)

Gainesville (a university town in north central Florida)

Key West (a town on the westernmost of the Florida keys in the Gulf of Mexico)

Melbourne (a resort town in east central Florida)

Palm Beach (a resort town in southeast Florida on an island on the Atlantic coast)

Panama City (a resort and fishing town on the Gulf of Mexico in northwest Florida)

Pensacola (a town in extreme northwest Florida)

Sarasota (a town in west central Florida on the Gulf of Mexico)

West Palm Beach (a town in southeast Florida on the mainland opposite Palm Beach; founded as a commercial center for Palm Beach)

Albany (a town in southwest Georgia; processing center for peanuts and pecans)

Athens (a university town in northeast Georgia)

Brunswick (a town in southeast Georgia near the Atlantic coast; a port of entry)

Oxford (a university town in northern Mississippi; home of William Faulkner)

Valdosta (a town in southern Georgia near the Florida border)

Vidalia (a town in central Georgia; the origin of Vidalia onions)

Hilo (a town in Hawaii on the island of Hawaii)

Coeur d'Alene (a town in the northern panhandle of Idaho; popular resort area)

Idaho Falls (a town in southeastern Idaho on the Snake River)

Lewiston (a town in northwestern Idaho)

Nampa (a town in southwestern Idaho)

Pocatello (a university town in southeastern Idaho)

Sun Valley (a winter sports resort in south central Idaho)

Twin Falls (a town on the Snake River in south central Idaho near the Twin Falls)

Cairo (a town at the southern tip of Illinois at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers)

Carbondale (a town in southern Illinois)

Champaign (a university town in east central Illinois adjoining Urbana)

East Saint Louis (a town in southwest Illinois on the Mississippi across from Saint Louis)

Moline (a town in northwest Illinois on the Mississippi River)

Rock Island (a town in northwest Illinois on the Mississippi River; site of a Union prison during the American Civil War)

Urbana (a university town in east central Illinois adjoining Champaign)

Bloomington (a university town in south central Indiana)

Lafayette (a university town in west central Indiana on the Wabash River)

Muncie (a town in east central Indiana)

Council Bluffs (a town in southwest Iowa on the Missouri River across from Omaha)

Clinton (a town in east central Iowa)

Dubuque (a town in eastern Iowa on the Mississippi River)

Mason City (a town in north central Iowa)

Ottumwa (a town in southeast Iowa)

Dodge City (a town of southwestern Kansas on the Arkansas River; formerly a rowdy cow town)

Abilene (a town in central Kansas to the west of Topeka; home of Dwight D. Eisenhower)

Hays (a town in central Kansas)

Lawrence (a town in northeastern Kansas on the Kansas River; scene of raids by John Brown in 1856)

Salina (a town in central Kansas)

Bowling Green (a town in southern Kentucky)

Owensboro (a town in northwestern Kentucky on the Ohio River; a tobacco market)

Paducah (a town in western Kentucky on the Ohio River)

Alexandria (a town in Louisiana on the Red River)

Lafayette (a town in south central Louisiana; settled by Acadians)

Monroe (a town in north central Louisiana)

Morgan City (a town in southeast Louisiana to the south of Baton Rouge)

Bangor (a town in east central Maine on the Penobscot River)

Brunswick (a university town in southwestern Maine)

Lewiston (a town in southwestern Maine to the north of Portland)

Orono (a university town in east central Maine on the Penobscot River to the north of Bangor)

Aberdeen (a town in northeastern Maryland)

Frederick (a town in northern Maryland to the west of Baltimore)

Hagerstown (a town in northern Maryland)

Concord (town in eastern Massachusetts near Boston where the first battle of the American Revolution was fought)

Gloucester (a town in northeastern Massachusetts on Cape Ann to the northeast of Boston; the harbor has been a fishing center for centuries)

Lexington (town in eastern Massachusetts near Boston where the first battle of the American Revolution was fought)

Medford (town in northeastern Massachusetts; residential suburb of Boston)

Pittsfield (a town in western Massachusetts)

Plymouth (a town in Massachusetts founded by Pilgrims in 1620)

Williamstown (a town in northwestern Massachusetts)

Alpena (a town in northern Michigan on an arm of Lake Huron)

Houghton (a town in northwest Michigan on the Upper Peninsula)

Jackson (a town in south central Michigan)

Kalamazoo (a town in southwest Michigan)

Marquette (a town on Lake Superior on the Upper Peninsula in northwest Michigan)

Monroe (a town of southeast Michigan on Lake Erie)

Saginaw (a town in east central Michigan on an arm of Lake Huron)

Traverse City (a town in northern Michigan on an arm of Lake Michigan)

Bemidji (a town in northern Minnesota)

Hibbing (a town in northeastern Minnesota in the Mesabi Range)

Mankato (a town in southern Minnesota)

Rochester (a town in southeast Minnesota)

Saint Cloud; St. Cloud (a town in central Minnesota on the Mississippi River; granite quarries)

Virginia (a town in northeastern Minnesota in the heart of the Mesabi Range)

Biloxi (an old town in southern Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico)

Columbus (a town in eastern Mississippi near the border with Alabama)

Greenville (a town in western Mississippi on the Mississippi River to the north of Vicksburg)

Hattiesburg (a town in southeast Mississippi)

Meridian (a town in eastern Mississippi)

Natchez (a town in southwest Mississippi on the Mississippi River)

Tupelo (a town in northeast Mississippi)

Vicksburg (a town in western Mississippi on bluffs above the Mississippi River to the west of Jackson; focus of an important campaign during the American Civil War as the Union fought to control the Mississippi River and so to cut the Confederacy into two halves)

Cape Girardeau (a town in southeast Missouri)

Columbia (a university town in central Missouri)

Hannibal (a town in northeast Missouri on the Mississippi River; boyhood home of Mark Twain)

Poplar Bluff (a town in southeast Missouri)

Saint Joseph; St. Joseph (a town in northwest Missouri on the Missouri River; in the 19th century it became the eastern terminus of the pony express)

Sedalia (a town in east central Missouri)

Bozeman (a town in southwestern Montana; gateway to Yellowstone National Park)

Butte (a town in southwestern Montana; center for mining copper)

Great Falls (a town in central Montana on the Missouri river; a center of extensive hydroelectric power)

Missoula (a university town in western Montana)

Grand Island (a town in south central Nebraska)

North Platte (a town in west central Nebraska on the Platte River)

Portsmouth (a port town in southeastern New Hampshire on the Atlantic Ocean)

Morristown (a town in northern New Jersey where the Continental Army spent two winters)

New Brunswick; Princeton (a university town in central New Jersey)

Carlsbad (a town in southeastern New Mexico on the Pecos River near the Mexican border; potash deposits)

Farmington (a town in northwestern New Mexico)

Gallup (a town in northwestern New Mexico near the Arizona border)

Las Cruces (a town in southern New Mexico on the Rio Grande)

Los Alamos (a town in north central New Mexico; in 1942 it was chosen as a nuclear research site where the first atomic bombs were produced)

Roswell (a town in southeast New Mexico)

Silver City (a town in southwestern New Mexico)

Taos (an artist colony in northern New Mexico)

Cooperstown (a small town in east central New York; site of the National Baseball Hall of Fame)

Ithaca (a college town in central New York on Lake Cayuga)

Elmont (a town on Long Island in New York; site of Belmont Park)

Kingston (a town on the Hudson River in New York)

Newburgh (a town on the Hudson River in New York; in 1782 and 1783 it was George Washington's headquarters)

Saratoga Springs (a town in eastern New York State famed for its spa and its horse racing)

Watertown (a town in northern New York)

Asheville (a town in western North Carolina in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west of Charlotte)

Chapel Hill (a town in central North Carolina; site of the University of North Carolina)

Fayetteville (a town in south central North Carolina)

Goldsboro (a town that is a major tobacco center in eastern North Carolina)

Wilmington (a town in southeastern North Carolina on the Cape Fear River)

Athens (a town in southeast Ohio)

Mansfield (a town in north central Ohio)

Bartlesville (a town in northeastern Oklahoma)

Enid (a town in north central Oklahoma)

Lawton (a town in southwest Oklahoma)

McAlester (a town in southeastern Oklahoma)

Muskogee (a town in eastern Oklahoma on the Arkansas River)

Bend (a town in central Oregon at the eastern foot of the Cascade Range)

Klamath Falls (a town in southern Oregon near the California border)

Medford (a town in southwestern Oregon; a summer resort)

Altoona (a town in central Pennsylvania)

Bethlehem (a town in eastern Pennsylvania on the Lehigh River to the northwest of Philadelphia; an important center for steel production)

Gettysburg (a small town in southern Pennsylvania; site of a national cemetery)

Hershey (an industrial town to the east of Harrisburg)

Florence (a town in northeast South Carolina; transportation center)

Greenville (a town in northwest South Carolina in the Piedmont)

Aberdeen (a town in northeastern South Dakota)

Rapid City (a town in southwestern South Dakota in the eastern part of the Black Hills)

Columbia (a town in west central Tennessee)

Jackson (a town in western Tennessee)

Johnson City (a town in northeastern Tennessee)

Bryan (a town of east central Texas)

Del Rio (a town in southwest Texas on the Rio Grande to the west of San Antonio)

Galveston (a town in southeast Texas on Galveston Island)

Lufkin (a town in eastern Texas)

McAllen (a town in southern Texas on the Rio Grande)

Midland (a town in west central Texas)

Paris (a town in northeastern Texas)

San Angelo (a town in west central Texas; formerly a notorious frontier town)

Sherman (a town in northeastern Texas near the Oklahoma border)

Texarkana (a town in northeast Texas adjacent to Texarkana, Arkansas)

Tyler (a town in northeast Texas)

Victoria (a town in southeast Texas to the southeast of San Antonio)

Ogden (a town in northern Utah settled by Mormons)

Bennington (a town in southwestern Vermont)

Brattleboro (a town in southeastern Vermont on the Connecticut River)

Rutland (a town in central Vermont)

Blacksburg (a university town in southwestern Virginia (west of Roanoke) in the Allegheny Mountains)

Fredericksburg (a town in northeastern Virginia on the Rappahannock River)

Petersburg (a town in southeastern Virginia (south of Richmond); scene of heavy fighting during the American Civil War)

Aberdeen (a town in western Washington)

Bellingham (a town in northwestern Washington on a bay near the Canadian border)

Kennewick (a town in southern Washington on the Columbia River)

Vancouver (a town in southwestern Washington on the Columbia River across from Portland, Oregon)

Walla Walla (a town in southeastern Washington near the Oregon border)

Yakima (a town in south central Washington)

Fayetteville (a town in central West Virginia on the New River)

Harper's Ferry; Harpers Ferry (a small town in northeastern West Virginia that was the site of a raid in 1859 by the abolitionist John Brown and his followers who captured an arsenal that was located there)

Appleton (a town in eastern Wisconsin)

Eau Claire (a town in west central Wisconsin)

La Crosse (a town in western Wisconsin on the Mississippi River)

Superior (a town in northwest Wisconsin on Lake Superior across from Duluth)

Watertown (a town in southeastern Wisconsin)

Wausau (a town in north central Wisconsin)

Jackson (a town in western Wyoming)

Lander (a town in central Wyoming)

Laramie (a university town in southeast Wyoming)

Rock Springs (a town of southwest Wyoming near the Utah border)

Derivation:

township (an administrative division of a county)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The people living in a municipality smaller than a city

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

town; townsfolk; townspeople

Context example:

the whole town cheered the team

Hypernyms ("town" is a kind of...):

municipality (people living in a town or city having local self-government)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "town"):

borough (an English town that forms the constituency of a member of parliament)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An administrative division of a county

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

town; township

Context example:

the town is responsible for snow removal

Hypernyms ("town" is a kind of...):

administrative district; administrative division; territorial division (a district defined for administrative purposes)

Derivation:

township (an administrative division of a county)

Sense 4

Meaning:

United States architect who was noted for his design and construction of truss bridges (1784-1844)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Ithiel Town; Town

Hypernyms ("Town" is a kind of...):

architect; designer (someone who creates plans to be used in making something (such as buildings))

 Context examples 

To the general disappointment, however, it was not to be found; it seems to have disappeared entirely from the town.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I saw no more of Uriah Heep, until the day when Agnes left town.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Then we shall see whether we can't get back to their town and hit 'em where it hurts most.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was after such encounters that the dead and wounded were carted back to the towns, and their places filled by men eager for the man-hunt.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Every week-end I went home to my mother in town.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“After all,” said I, “the clue of the matter lies probably here in town.”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The town is about as large as Portsmouth.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Oh, I only came home from S- (she mentioned the name of a large town some twenty miles distant) this afternoon.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This, you know, speaks a great degree of weakness—but now she is so impatient to be in town, that she means to sleep only two nights on the road.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Oh! that I could transport you for a short time into our circle in town, that you might understand how your power over Henry is thought of there!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)