township

English

Bangor Township, Bay County, Michigan

Etymology

From Middle English towneship, townschip, tounshipe, tunscipe, from Old English tūnsċipe (“the inhabitants of a town; township”), equivalent to town +‎ -ship.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊnʃɪp/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

township (plural townships)

1. The territory of a town.
   • 1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:

     The train is usually crowded and half the township of Forres seems to turn out to watch it go off.

   • 2010, Rajib Shaw, Danai Thaitakoo, Water Communities‎^[1], Emerald Books, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 252:

     Furthermore, everyone knows that the crops grown at Chou-Shui River are of high quality, like the rice of Siluo Township, watermelons of Erlun Township, garlic of Cihtong Township, flowers of Shijo Township, guava of Shetou Township, and so on.

2. (US, Canada) A subdivision of a county.
3. (South Africa, Pre 1994) An area set aside for nonwhite occupation.
   • 1972, Daily Dispatch:

     In addition, the council has completed the planning of a new Coloured township on the site of the existing African township.

4. (South Africa, Post 1994) A nonwhite (usually subeconomic) area attached to a city.
5. (Australia, New Zealand) A small town.

Usage notes

In the US (derived from an obsolete UK usage), the term "township" refers to a division of a county, and may include one or more towns, villages, hamlets, or small cities. It may also be an administrative district for an unincorporated rural area. The exact nature of a township, and its role in local administration, differs from state to state. Not every state has townships, more detail can be found in the article Township (United States).

Derived terms

• Laugharne Township (community in Wales)
• paper township
• township music

 

Related terms

• squatter camp

Descendants

• Portuguese: township

Translations

territory of a town

• Bulgarian: селище (bg) n (selište)
• Burmese: မြို့နယ် (my) (mrui.nai)
• Chinese:

  Hakka: please add this translation if you can

  Hokkien: please add this translation if you can

  Mandarin: 鎮區／镇区 (zh) (zhènqū)

• Czech: obec (cs) f
• Dutch: tuinschap f
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kunta (fi), kaupunki (fi)
• German: Township (de) f
• Icelandic: bæjarfélag n, sveitarfélag n
• Latin: mūnicipium (la) n
• Portuguese: municipalidade (pt) f
• Russian: городо́к (ru) m (gorodók), посёлок (ru) m (posjólok), месте́чко (ru) n (mestéčko)
• Spanish: municipio (es) m
• Swedish: stadsdel (sv) c (part of a town), kommundel c (part of a county), småstad (sv) c (small town), liten stad (sv) c (small town)

a subdivision of a county

• Bulgarian: община f (obština)
• Hungarian: járás (hu)
• Spanish: municipio (es) m
• Vietnamese: xã (vi)

area set aside for nonwhite occupation in South Africa

• Afrikaans: township
• Dutch: tuinschap f
• German: Zaunschaft f, Township (de) n
• Portuguese: township f
• Russian: та́уншип (ru) m (táunšip)
• Xhosa: ilokishi

References

Jean Branford, editor (1978), A Dictionary of South African English, Oxford

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tawn.ʃip/

Noun

township m (plural townships)

1. township (in South Africa)
2. (Canada) canton

Portuguese

Noun

township

1. (historical) township (area set aside for non-white occupation in South Africa)