different between town vs area

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

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin area.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: âr'??, IPA^(key): /????????/
• (US) enPR: ?r'??, IPA^(key): /?æ?.i.?/, /???.i.?/

Noun

area (plural areas or areæ)

1. (mathematics) A measure of the extent of a surface; it is measured in square units.
   • 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

     It is about 4.5 million square kilometers in area and holds the world’s third largest collection of ice after Antarctica and Greenland.

2. A particular geographic region.
3. Any particular extent of surface, especially an empty or unused extent.

4. The extent, scope, or range of an object or concept.

5. (Britain) An open space, below ground level, giving access to the basement of a house, and typically separated from the pavement by railings. [from 18th c.]
   • 1790, Helen Maria Williams, Julia, Routledge 2016, p. 95:

     A boy seized it, whom she bribed with a shilling to relinquish his prize, which she was taking home, when it escaped from her hand, and fell down the area of a house.

   • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch 4:

     This was so favourably received by the milkman and beadle that he would immediately have been pushed into the area if I had not held his pinafore while Richard and Mr. Guppy ran down through the kitchen to catch him when he should be released.

   • 1908, Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans":

     A minute later we were both in the area. Hardly had we reached the dark shadows before the step of the policeman was heard in the fog above. As its soft rhythm died away, Holmes set to work upon the lower door. I saw him stoop and strain until with a sharp crash it flew open. We sprang through into the dark passage, closing the area door behind us.

6. (soccer) Penalty box; penalty area.
7. (slang) Genitals.

Derived terms

Related terms

• areal

Translations

See also

• Imperial: square inches, square feet, square yards, square miles, acres
• Metric: square meters/square metres, square centimeters/square centimetres, square kilometers/square kilometres, hectares

Anagrams

• Aare, æra

Afrikaans

Noun

area (plural areas)

1. area

Derived terms

• leerarea

Galician

Etymology

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese ar?a, from Latin ar?n? (“sand”). Cognate with Portuguese areia and Spanish arena.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a??ea?/

Noun

area f (plural areas)

1. sand (a grain)
2. (figuratively) a grain of salt
3. sand (collectively)

   Synonyms: xabre, saibro

4. (dated) beach, cove

   Synonyms: areal, praia, arnela

Derived terms

See also

• área

References

• “area” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “area” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “area” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “area” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “area” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ?rea. Doublet of Italian aia (“threshing floor”).

Noun

area f (plural aree)

1. area, surface
2. land, ground
3. field, sector

Related terms

• areale

Anagrams

• aera

Latin

Etymology

• Either from Proto-Italic *?ze?, from Proto-Indo-European *h?eHs-e-yeh?, from *h?eHs- (“to burn”) (whence ?re?, ?r?),
• Or from Proto-Italic *?re?, from Proto-Indo-European *h?eh?r-e-yeh?, from *h?eh?rh?- (“threshing tool”) (cognate with Hittite [script needed] (?a??ar, “rake, threshing tool”)), resultative reduplicated noun from verb *h?erh?- (“to plough”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?a?.re.a/, [?ä??eä]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?a.re.a/, [??????]

Noun

?rea f (genitive ?reae); first declension

1. a piece of level ground, a vacant place (esp. in the town)
2. ground for a house, a building-spot
3. (figuratively) a vacant space around or in a house, a court
4. (figuratively) an open space for games, an open play-ground
5. (figuratively) a threshing floor
6. (figuratively) the halo around the sun or moon
7. (figuratively) a bed or border in a garden
8. (figuratively) a fowling-floor
9. (figuratively) a burying-ground, church-yard
10. (figuratively) a bald spot upon the head, baldness
11. vocative singular of ?rea

Declension

First-declension noun.

Derived terms

• ?realis
• ?reola

Descendants

Borrowings:

Noun

?re? f

1. ablative singular of ?rea

References

• area in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• area in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• area in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• area in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
• area in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• area in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly

Anagrams

• aera

Papiamentu

Etymology

From Spanish área and English area.

Noun

area

1. area

Portuguese

Noun

area f (plural areas)

1. Obsolete spelling of área

Swedish

Etymology

From Latin area (literally “vacant piece of level ground”)

Noun

area c

1. (geometry) area; a measure of squared distance.

Declension