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• village
  village

  noun

  a small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town, and sometimes (as in parts of the U.S.) incorporated as a municipality.
• Village
  Village

  noun

  The, a city in central Oklahoma.

village

¹ American  

[vil-ij] / ˈvɪl ɪdʒ /

noun

• villages
  plural

1. a small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town, and sometimes (as in parts of the U.S.) incorporated as a municipality.

2. the inhabitants of such a community collectively.

3. a group of animal dwellings resembling a village.

   a gopher village.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of a village.

   village life.

Village ² American  

[vil-ij] / ˈvɪl ɪdʒ /

noun

1. The, a city in central Oklahoma.

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village British  

/ ˈvɪlɪdʒ /

noun

1. a small group of houses in a country area, larger than a hamlet

2. the inhabitants of such a community collectively

3. an incorporated municipality smaller than a town in various parts of the US and Canada

4. a group of habitats of certain animals

5. a self-contained city area having its own shops, etc

6. (modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of a village

   a village green

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Synonym Usage

See community.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• intervillage
  adjective
• village-like
  adjective
• villageless
  adjective
• villagey
  adjective
• villagy
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• villages
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of village

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin villāticum, neuter of villāticus villatic

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Explanation

A village is a place where people live that's smaller than a city or town. The village where your grandparents live might have a population of only a few hundred people. In the US, some towns, townships, and cities have smaller villages communities within them. There are also villages that are independent of any larger areas. In either case, a village is typically larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town. The majority of Indians live in villages, while in other countries (like Russia and the UK) population has moved to big cities and suburbs, away from traditional villages. The Latin source of village is villa, or "farm."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

village Village villages

California rapper Kyle Shin, who goes by Son of Paper, recently performed in his family’s ancestral village.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

"The view is beautiful. They're bigger than trees," 23-year-old Toukta Phonsala told AFP inside her wooden stilt house in Dak Wai village, her baby bouncing on her lap.

From Barron's ● Nov. 1, 2026

"We have people that come from far and wide. They've never seen a village that's on a big steep hill with so many businesses and residential properties."

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026

It’s still uncertain whether prehistoric Oued Beht functioned as a permanent village, a seasonal center, or something less familiar.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026

They soon arrived in a village of about one thousand people.

From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios

Actress Julianne Moore recently opened the doors of her gorgeous West Village duplex penthouse for an apartment tour with Architectural Digest.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026

Village pharmacist, 78-year-old Antonio Garcia Colina, said he had rushed to the scene of the crash in his car shortly after it happened to try to help the injured and witnessed several people dying.

From Barron's ● Oct. 31, 2026

Manchester United against Manchester City was hosted at Leigh Village in October with a crowd of 5,361.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

The next Tuesday, I found myself near midnight in the West Village, tumbling out of a stand-up comedy show at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theater with a friend, Syrie.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

Swanlake Village wasn’t a fancy place at all, just a regular old neighborhood.

From "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate

They fanned out across towns and villages, gathered signatures and recruited polling-station monitors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 1, 2026

These places, located along the Hudson River north of New York City, were once rural villages.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

Jordan's Interior Minister Mazen al-Faraya told state-affiliated TV the attackers were all Jordanians and "had been holed up in a building in one of the villages near the site of the attack".

From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026

The murky, magnificent Eel River was once a highway for the Wailaki people, who navigated by canoe and hauled goods between villages in cone-shaped baskets.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026

But the next day people began arriving in dozens, then in droves, some from Trokorpe and nearby villages, disheveled, distraught, grown men sobbing like babies.

From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo

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