civic center

American  

noun

1. a building complex housing a theater or theaters for the performing arts and sometimes exhibition halls, a museum, etc., and usually constructed or maintained by municipal funds.

2. a building or building complex containing a municipality's administrative offices, various departmental headquarters, courts, etc., and sometimes an auditorium, libraries, or other community or cultural facilities.

3. a theater, meeting hall, or the like for community or public use.

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Etymology

Origin of civic center

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Stout met Kirk for the first time in 2014 when he was speaking to a group of young Texas conservatives huddled in a small room of a civic center in Harris County.

From Slate • Sep. 23, 2025

After a couple of minutes, it lifted off heading for an immense plume of smoke billowing above the civic center.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2024

But a civic center isn’t just a commercial destination.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 22, 2024

“Not that it is just a financial center and a civic center and an economic center, but it’s also a neighborhood.”

From Seattle Times • May 22, 2024

The head was in the midst of about fifty large, artificial earthen mounds—the ruins, Sterling concluded with excitement, of a previously unknown Maya civic center.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann