city hall

American  

noun

(often initial capital letters)

city halls plural

1. the administration building of a city government.

2. a city administration or government.

3. Informal. a bureaucracy or bureaucratic rules and regulations, especially that of a city government.

   You can't fight city hall.

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city hall British  

noun

1. the building housing the administrative offices of a city or municipal government

2. 1. municipal government

   2. the officials of a municipality collectively

3. informal bureaucracy

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• city halls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of city hall

An Americanism dating back to 1665–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

city hall

Standing at a city hall podium, he thanked Dolan and the front office for “believing in a kid when no one else would.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

To get one more shot to fight city hall, and win.

From Slate ● Mar. 25, 2026

Altadena has never organized itself around a traditional civic center, like a city hall plaza or downtown square.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2026

His longshot bid for city hall comes on the anniversary of a wildfire that destroyed his home and became one of California's most destructive blazes on record.

From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2026

We walked alongside city hall and past an old fountain that had a statue of one of the city’s original founders in it.

From "The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora" by Pablo Cartaya

Related Words

• town hall