different between neighborhood vs town

English

Alternative forms

• neighbourhood (UK)

Etymology

From an alteration of earlier neighborred (“neighborhood”), from Middle English ne?eburredde, neheborreden, equivalent to neighbor +? -red; the alteration being interpreted as though from neighbor +? -hood. For change in suffix (-red to -hood), compare brotherhood.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ne?b?.h?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ne?b??h?d/

Noun

neighborhood (countable and uncountable, plural neighborhoods) (American spelling)

1. (chiefly obsolete) The quality of being a neighbor, of living nearby, next to each-other; proximity.

   Our neighborhood was our only reason to exchange hollow greetings.

   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 243-245,^[1]

     […] if you do any thing for charity, helpe me; if for neighborhood or brotherhood, helpe me […]

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act V, Scene 2,^[2]

     Take her, fair son, and from her blood raise up

     Issue to me; that the contending kingdoms

     Of France and England, whose very shores look pale

     With envy of each other’s happiness,

     May cease their hatred; and this dear conjunction

     Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord

     In their sweet bosoms […]

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, ll. 399-402:

     Nor content with such / Audacious neighbourhood, the wisest heart / Of Solomon he led by fraud to build / His Temple right against the Temple of God.

   • 1835, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes:

     Then the prison and the palace were in awful neighbourhood.

2. (dated) Close proximity; nearness.
   • 1853, Charles Boner, Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria (page 286)

     At first he was partly hidden among the latschen, then his hind-quarters, quite black, emerged from the dark green bushes, as he slowly moved on, perfectly unconscious of our neighbourhood.

3. The residential area near one's home.

   He lives in my neighborhood.

4. The inhabitants of a residential area.

   The fire alarmed the neighborhood.

5. A formal or informal division of a municipality or region.

   We have just moved to a pleasant neighborhood.

6. An approximate amount.

   He must be making in the neighborhood of $200,000 per year.

7. The quality of physical proximity.

   The slums and the palace were in awful neighborhood.

8. (obsolete) The disposition becoming a neighbor; neighborly kindness or good will.
9. (topology) Within a topological space:
   1. A set containing an open set which contains some specified point.
   2. Alternatively: An open set which contains some specified point.
10. (topology) Within a metric space:
    1. A set containing an open ball which contains a specified point.
    2. Alternatively: An open ball which contains some specified point.
11. (topology) The infinitesimal open set of all points that may be reached directly from a given point.
12. (graph theory) The set of all the vertices adjacent to a given vertex.

Synonyms

• vicinity
• proximity
• quarter

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• neighborship
• neighborhood on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• tahn, tawn (Bermuda),
• toune, towne (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English town, toun, from Old English t?n (“enclosure, garden”), from Proto-Germanic *t?n? (“fence”) (compare West Frisian tún, Dutch tuin (“garden”), German Zaun, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian tun), from Gaulish d?nom (“hill, hillfort”), from Proto-Celtic *d?nom (compare archaic Welsh din (“hill”), Irish dún (“fortress”)), from Proto-Indo-European *dewh?- (“to finish, come full circle”). Doublet of dun. See also -ton and tine (“to enclose”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ta?n/, [t?a??n]
• Rhymes: -a?n

Noun

town (countable and uncountable, plural towns)

1. A settlement; an area with residential districts, shops and amenities, and its own local government; especially one larger than a village and smaller than a city.
2. Any more urbanized center than the place of reference.
3. (Britain, historical) A rural settlement in which a market was held at least once a week.
4. The residents (as opposed to gown: the students, faculty, etc.) of a community which is the site of a university.
5. (colloquial) Used to refer to a town or similar entity under discussion.
6. (humorous, ironic) A major city, especially one where the speaker is located.
7. (law) A municipal organization, such as a corporation, defined by the laws of the entity of which it is a part.
8. (obsolete) An enclosure which surrounded the mere homestead or dwelling of the lord of the manor.
9. (obsolete) The whole of the land which constituted the domain.
10. (obsolete) A collection of houses enclosed by fences or walls.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Palsgrave to this entry?)

11. (Britain, Scotland, dialect, obsolete) A farm or farmstead; also, a court or farmyard.

Usage notes

• An urban city is typically larger than a rural town, which in turn is typically larger than a village. In rural areas, a town may be considered urban. In urban areas, a town can be considered suburban; a village in the suburbs. The distinctions are fluid and dependent on subjective perception.

Hypernyms

• settlement

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Japanese: ??? (taun)

Translations

See also

• urban
• suburban
• rural

Anagrams

• nowt, wo'n't, won't, wont

Middle English

Noun

town

1. Alternative form of toun