township

IPA/ˈtaʊnʃɪp/
KK[tˈaʊnʃɪp]IPA/ˈtaʊnʃɪp/

township — noun

  • townshipsingular
  • townshipsplural

1. in the United States and Canada, a small area with its own local government, mad

1.nounB2
Definition

in the United States and Canada, a small area with its own local government, made up of a town together with the land around it

Example

The township council voted to build a new library near the school.

compound: township council as a local body

Minh grew up in a quiet township just north of the state capital.

named subject anchors the place reference

Common collocations
  • township council
  • township board
  • rural township
Synonyms
  • municipality

    broader, can mean a city, town, or district with self-government

  • district

    any marked-off area, not always a unit of government

Usage Note

Subject of news and legal writing about local government in North America. Often pairs with 'county', 'council', or 'board'.

2. in South Africa, an area on the edge of a city set aside for Black or non-white

2.nounC1
Definition

in South Africa, an area on the edge of a city set aside for Black or non-white residents under the old system of racial separation, where many people still live today

Example

Kabir interviewed elderly residents who had lived in the township since the 1960s.

township as a long-standing residential area

Buses carried workers from the township into the city every morning.

township located on the edge of a city

Common collocations
  • township outside Johannesburg
  • informal township

Usage Note

Distinguish from sense 1: this sense is specific to South Africa and carries the history of forced racial separation, while sense 1 is a neutral North American unit of government.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These three words all name an area with some shared local administration, but they differ in scope and formality. A 'township' is a specific North American unit: a town plus the land around it, with its own small council. A 'municipality' is broader and more formal — it can be a city, a town, or a township, and the word stresses the right to govern local affairs. A 'district' is the loosest of the three: it simply marks off an area for some purpose (a school district, a business district) and need not have its own government at all. So a township is usually one kind of municipality, while a district may cut across or sit inside any of them. For example, you might pay township taxes, attend a municipality meeting, or live in a quiet residential district.

township ↗municipality ↗district ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • township council
  • township board
  • township line

Phrases

  • rural township
  • residents of the township

Prepositions

  • in the township
  • across the township

Etymology

Old EnglishEnglish

Township joins 'town' with the old ending '-ship', which means a state, quality, or area of control (as in 'friendship' or 'leadership'). In early English it meant the land and people belonging to a single town. Settlers carried the word to North America, where it became a fixed unit of local government, and English speakers in South Africa later used it for the separate areas set aside for Black residents.

First known use

12th century

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 4