city hall
Americannoun
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city halls
plural
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the administration building of a city government.
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a city administration or government.
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Informal. a bureaucracy or bureaucratic rules and regulations, especially that of a city government.
You can't fight city hall.
noun
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the building housing the administrative offices of a city or municipal government
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municipal government
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the officials of a municipality collectively
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informal bureaucracy
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of city hall
An Americanism dating back to 1665–75
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Patience graduated with honors from Princeton University, where she was a city hall reporter and news editor for The Daily Princetonian.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
Right-leaning Americans who had never been particularly civically engaged found themselves at city hall meetings or out in protests, furious about business closures and stay-at-home orders.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
The roads around the city hall in blue will be open some of the time, closing on a phased basis as necessary.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
But legal scholars and redistricting experts say the ruling could also have consequences in California’s city hall, school board and county supervisor races.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
The mayor showed up at city hall every day to learn what new crisis had developed, meet visitors, and consider options.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
