municipality

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French municipalité (Edmund Burke), from municipal + -ité, from Latin municipalis, from municipium (“free city, township”), from municeps (“citizen of a free city or township”), from mūnus (“duty, service”) + -ceps (“taker, catcher”). Equivalent to municipal +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /mjʊˌnɪsɪˈpælɪti/
Audio (southern England) (file)
Audio (CA) (file)

Noun

municipality (plural municipalities)

A district with a government that typically encloses no other governed districts; a borough, city, or incorporated town or village.
The governing body of such a district.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎:
  From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
(politics) In Mexico and other Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, second-level administrative divisions that may house one or more cities or towns whose head of government may be called mayors or, in Mexico, municipal presidents.

Related terms

municipal
munificence
munificent
remunerate
remuneration

Translations

a district with a government that typically encloses no other governed districts

Afrikaans: munisipaliteit (af)
Albanian: bashki (sq) f (urban), komunë (sq) f (rural)
Arabic: بَلَدِيَّة‎ f (baladiyya)
Armenian: մունիցիպալիտետ (hy) (municʿipalitet)
Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܟܪܟܘܬܐ‎ (krkwtā)
Azerbaijani: bələdiyyə
Basque: udalerri (eu)
Belarusian: муніцыпалітэ́т m (municypalitét)
Bengali: পৌরসভা (pourôsôbha)
Bikol Central: banwa, banwaan (bcl)
Bulgarian: община́ f (obštiná)
Catalan: municipi (ca)
Central Franconian: Jemeinde
Central Mazahua: texjñiñi
Chinese:
Mandarin: 直轄市／直辖市 (zh) (zhíxiáshì)
Czech: obec (cs) f
Danish: kommune (da) c
Dutch: gemeente (nl)
Estonian: munitsipaliteet, linnavalitsus
Extremaduran: monicípiu
Faroese: kommuna f
Finnish: kunta (fi)
French: municipalité (fr)
Galician: municipio m, concello (gl) m
Georgian: მუნიციპალიტეტი (municiṗaliṭeṭi)
German: Gemeinde (de) f, Munizipalität (de) f
Greek: δήμος (el) m (dímos)
Hindi: नगरपालिका (hi) f (nagarpālikā)
Hungarian: (settlement) település (hu), (concerning its physical or legal extent) közigazgatási terület, (hyponyms: city/town and village) város (hu), község (hu)
Icelandic: sveitarfélag n
Inari Sami: kieldâ
Irish: bardasacht f, cathair bhardais f, baile bardais m
Italian: comune (it) m, municipalità (it) f
Japanese: 自治体 (ja) (じちたい, jichitai)
Kazakh: муниципалитет (munisipalitet)
Khmer: ក្រុង (km) (krong) (city)
Korean: 자치체(自治體) (jachiche)
Kurdish:
Central Kurdish: شارەوانی‎ (şarewanî)
Northern Kurdish: şaredarî (ku)
Kyrgyz: муниципалитет (munitsipalitet)
Latin: mūnicipium (la) n
Latvian: municipalitāte f
Lithuanian: savivaldybė (lt) f
Luxembourgish: Gemeng (lb) f, Municipalitéit f
Macedonian: општина f (opština)
Mòcheno: gamoa' f
Norman: meunicipalité f (Jersey)
Northern Sami: suohkan, gielda
Norwegian:
Bokmål: kommune (no) m
Nynorsk: kommune m
Persian: شهرداری‎ (fa) (šahrdâri)
Polish: gmina (pl) f
Portuguese: município (pt) m, comuna (pt) f
Romanian: municipalitate (ro) f
Russian: муниципалите́т (ru) m (municipalitét), комму́на (ru) f (kommúna) (e.g. in Sweden), общи́на (ru) f (obščína)
Scots: municipality
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: о̏пћина f, муниципалитет m
Roman: ȍpćina f, municipalitet m
Slovak: obec (sk) f
Slovene: občina f
Southern Sami: tjïelte
Spanish: municipio (es)
Swahili: manispaa
Swedish: kommun (sv) c
Tagalog: munisipalidad
Tajik: мунитсипалитет (munitsipalitet), шаҳрдори (šahrdori)
Tatar: муниципалитет (munitsipalitet)
Thai: เทศบาล (th) (têet-sà-baan)
Turkish: belediye (tr)
Ukrainian: муніципаліте́т m (municypalitét)
Urdu: بلدیہ‎ m (baldiya)
Uzbek: munitsipalitet (uz)
Vietnamese: khu tự quản
Welsh: bwrdeistref f

the governing body of such a district

Dutch: gemeente (nl)
Finnish: kunnanhallitus (fi)
Galician: concello (gl)
Hindi: नगरपालिका (hi) f (nagarpālikā)
Hungarian: helyhatóság (hu), önkormányzat (hu), elöljáróság (hu), törvényhatóság
Icelandic: sveitarstjórn f
Irish: bardas m
Italian: giunta comunale f
Persian: شهرداری‎ (fa) (šahrdâri)
Portuguese: governo municipal m

Scots

Etymology

Borrowed from English municipality.

Noun

municipality (plural municipalities)

municipality