municipality

What it means

1. A district with a government that typically encloses no other governed districts; a borough, city, or incorporated town or village.

   1 more example

   The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on May 29 that Louisville was one of more than 600 municipalities across the U.S. accused of obstructing immigration enforcement. The federal government called these locations “sanctuary jurisdictions,” alleging they were undermining the rule of law. Four Kentucky counties also made the list: Campbell, Franklin, Jefferson and Scott.

   2025 July 22, Connor N. Smith, Mason Brighton, “Louisville drops sanctuary city status after DOJ pressure”, in Spectrum News, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2025

2. The governing body of such a district.

   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

3. governmentIn the Philippines and in 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.

In a sentence

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on May 29 that Louisville was one of more than 600 municipalities across the U.S. accused of obstructing immigration enforcement. The federal government called these locations “sanctuary jurisdictions,” alleging they were undermining the rule of law. Four Kentucky counties also made the list: Campbell, Franklin, Jefferson and Scott.

2025 July 22, Connor N. Smith, Mason Brighton, “Louisville drops sanctuary city status after DOJ pressure”, in Spectrum News, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2025

Where it comes from

1. Latinmunicipalis
2. Frenchmunicipalité
3. Englishmunicipality

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.