city

• cyte (13th - 16th centuries)

From Middle English cite, borrowed from Old French cité, from Latin cīvitās (“citizenry; community; a city with its hinterland”), from civis (“native; townsman; citizen”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱey- (“to lie down, settle; home, family; love; beloved”). Cognate with Old English hīwan pl (“members of one's household, servants”). See hewe. Doublet of civitas.

Displaced native Middle English burgh, borough (“fortified town; incorporated city”) and sted, stede (“place, stead; city”).

• Audio

  (file)

Part of New York City, a large city with many tall buildings.

Despite its small size, Wells is a city because of its cathedral.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪti/
• (North of England) IPA^(key): /sɪtɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪt̬i/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪti
• Hyphenation: ci‧ty

city (plural cities)

1. A large settlement, bigger than a town.

   São Paulo is one of the largest cities in South America.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:

     So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:

     One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.

2. (Britain) A settlement granted special status by royal charter or letters patent; traditionally, a settlement with a cathedral regardless of size.
   • 1976, Cornelius P. Darcy, The Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Lancashire, 1760-1860, Manchester University Press (→ISBN), page 20

     Manchester, incorporated in 1838, was made the centre of a bishopric in 1847 and became a city in 1853. Liverpool was transformed into a city by Royal Charter when the new diocese of Liverpool was created in 1880.

   • 2014, Graham Rutt, Cycling Britain's Cathedrals Volume 1, Lulu.com (→ISBN), page 307

     St Davids itself is the smallest city in Great Britain, with a population of less than 2,000.

3. (Australia) The central business district; downtown.

   I'm going into the city today to do some shopping.

• settlement

Pages starting with "city".

• civic
• civil

• metropolis
• megalopolis
• megacity

• "city" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 55.

• ICTY

city

1. nominative plural of cit
2. accusative plural of cit
3. vocative plural of cit
4. instrumental plural of cit

Borrowed from English city.

city f (invariable)

1. city (financial district of a city)

• city bike
• city car
• city manager

Borrowed from English city.

• Audio

  (file)

city n

1. inner city, the commercial centre of a medium-sized or larger city

   Lite närmare city, i närheten av konstmuseet, ligger Norrköpings mest attraktiva lägenheter.

   A little closer to the town centre, next to the art museum, you'll find Norrköping's most attractive apartments.

   Det finns mycket att förbättra i vårt city.

   There are many things that need improvement in our inner city.

• centrum is used for the commercial centre of suburbs and small or medium-sized towns.

• centrum
• innerstad