Meaning of town in English

town

noun

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/taʊn/ us

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/taʊn/

a place where people live and work, containing many houses, shops, places of work, places of entertainment, etc., and usually larger than a village but smaller than a city:

a seaside/coastal town

a fishing/mining/industrial town

He was born in the small town of Castleford, in Yorkshire.

We stayed in the best hotel in town.

the main road into/out of town

See also

downtown adjective adverb US
hometown
uptown US

A2 [ S or U ] mainly UK

the part of a town where most of the businesses are:

I'm going into/to town at lunchtime to do some shopping.

I met Charles while I was in town.

Compare

downtown

[ U ] UK

the most important city or town in a country or area:

We went up to town to see a play.

Many people commute into town (= London) from Essex.

B1 [ U ] mainly US

the place where you live or work:

I'm leaving town for a few days.

Barbara is out of town on business this week.

the town [ S ]

[ + sing/pl verb ]

the people who live in the town:

The whole town is/are hoping that their team will win the final tomorrow.

a town or city, rather than the countryside:

I've always lived in the town.

More examples

There's not much in the way of entertainment in this town - just the cinema and a couple of pubs.
We spent our holidays in a small French town.
The town's main features are its beautiful mosque and ancient marketplace.
As agriculture became more capital intensive, many farm labourers moved to the towns and cities to look for work.
When you're in town could you pick up the books I ordered?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Towns & regions: towns, cities & villages (general)

See more results »

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Towns & regions: areas in towns & cities

People who live or settle somewhere

Idioms

go to town

on the town

(Definition of town from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

town | American Dictionary

town

noun [ C/U ]

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/tɑʊn/

a place where there are a lot of houses, stores, and other buildings which is smaller than a city:

[ C ] He was born in the small town of Elnora, Indiana.

[ U ] We stayed at the best hotel in town.

Town can also mean the place where you live or work:

[ U ] Barbara is out of town this week.

Town is also the part of a town where the main stores are:

[ U ] I’m going into/to town to do some shopping.

Town can also refer to the people who live in the town:

[ C ] The whole town is hoping our team will win.

Idiom

on the town

(Definition of town from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of town

town

We do need a term for this category of towns in this long period.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The results of such progressive diversification can be seen even in smaller towns.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

More examples Fewer examples

The most recent census reports should enable us to establish the differential migration rates to towns and cities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this zone, craft production occurred in both cities / towns and rural communities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Finally, parents often continued to send their children to schools and colleges in nearby towns even though these were now just across the border.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As the individual towns, their tribute requirements, or the imperial status of the provinces changed over time, the document could be modified accordingly.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The geographical isolation limits educational opportunities, knowledge of opportunities elsewhere, and kinship ties in cities and towns which would help emigration.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the wake of this, the farm lands and the towns were reclaimed by the encroaching forest.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Accepting the town's claim to dominion helped communities safeguard their lands and a degree of autonomy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Competition is strong among seed companies, which in turn assures a reasonable cost of seed and a ready seed supply in all market towns.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At the other end of the scale, however, the league of towns might perhaps be considered as a particular form of grand fraternity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Industry now dictated the form of the most widely circulated representations of provincial manufacturing towns.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A claim of dominion was used, in turn, to legitimise the town's right to call on the indigenous population for labour service.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Prior to the study, the team responsible for sample collection in the 25 towns in the region received instruction regarding the characteristics of the investigation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The annual death toll went in both towns from less than 5,000 burials per annum around 1600 to around 20,000 in the 1670s.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of town

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with town

town

These are words often used in combination with town.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

coal town

One is a steel town, another a coal town, and one is a town made up of a number of very small industries.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

coastal town

By the fourth decade of the 19th century, it was once again an insignificant coastal town.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

colonial town

Yet the city that witnessed independence still retained many of the features that had shaped the character of the colonial town.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with town

Translations of town

in Chinese (Traditional)

城鎮，市鎮, （市內）商業區, （某國或某地區的）中心城市，都會…

Meaning of town in English

Idioms

town | American Dictionary

Idiom

Examples of town

Collocations with town

town

Translations of town

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