Meanings
plural open cities
- international lawgovernmentA city which has announced (during wartime) that it has abandoned all defensive efforts, generally in the event of its imminent capture.
“You needn’t worry about bombs, by the way. Dresden is an open city. It is undefended, and contains no war industries or troop concentrations of any importance.”
1969 March 31, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five […] (A Seymour Lawrence Book), New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →OCLC, page 127 - dictatorshipsA city that (during peacetime) is not heavily restricted regarding ingress and egress because it does not contain militarily sensitive facilities or extensive defense industrial plant.
Antonyms: closed city
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA city that (during peacetime) is not heavily restricted regarding ingress and egress because it does not contain militarily sensitive facilities or extensive defense industrial plant.
Translations
Chinese Mandarin 不設防城市 /不设防城市
- 不設防城市 /不设防城市 (bù shèfáng chéngshì)city which has abandoned defensive efforts
French ville ouverte
- ville ouvertecity which has abandoned defensive efforts
German offene Stadt
- offene Stadtcity which has abandoned defensive efforts
Hungarian nyílt város
- nyílt városcity which has abandoned defensive efforts
Italian città aperta
- città apertacity which has abandoned defensive efforts
Portuguese cidade aberta
- cidade abertacity which has abandoned defensive efforts
Spanish ciudad abierta
- ciudad abiertacity which has abandoned defensive efforts
Cite this entry
open city. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20city
“open city.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20city. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “open city,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/open%20city.
Source: open city on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.