locale

[loh-kal, -kahl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR locale ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a place or locality, especially with reference to events or circumstances connected with it: to move to a warmer locale.

the scene or setting, as of a novel, play, or motion picture: The locale is a small Kansas town just before World War I.

Origin of locale

1765–75; alteration of earlier local < French: noun use of the adj. See local

Can be confusedlocal locale locality location

Synonyms for locale

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR locale ON THESAURUS.COM

1. location, site, spot.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for locales

neighborhood, venue, location, locality, sector, domain, haunt, locus, sphere, home, belt, position, district, area, vicinity, bailiwick, territory, spot, scene, tract

Examples from the Web for locales

Contemporary Examples of locales

Even in the smallest of Indian locales, the divisions of geography and nationalism are played out on a micro scale.
The Real India Revealed
Rafia Zakaria
August 6, 2014
Lear and his local guides “on the ground” know both the well-known and hidden gay histories of their locales.
Adventures in Gay History With Oscar Wilde
Tim Teeman
June 11, 2014
But other Sunbelt locales, notably Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma have picked up much of the slack.
Forget What the Pundits Tell You, Coastal Cities are Old News - it’s the Sunbelt that’s Booming
Joel Kotkin
March 1, 2014
The rest of the game world looks quite good as well, and each of the immense variety of locales have their own charm.
‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Review
Alec Kubas-Meyer
October 10, 2013
These locales also benefit from the influx of business their tax laws invite and all of the associated economic activity.
Why Mitt Romney Invests Overseas
Alex Klein
July 20, 2012

Historical Examples of locales

He was also equipped with my chart of the area complete with locales of the remains.
Attrition
Jim Wannamaker
The yield probably became better after camp groups became smaller, for locales were not hunted out as rapidly.
Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society
Robert F. Murphy
Some locales were known to have a plentiful supply of certain game animals.
Shoshone-Bannock Subsistence and Society
Robert F. Murphy

British Dictionary definitions for locales

locale

noun

a place or area, esp with reference to events connected with it

Word Origin for locale

C18: from French local (n use of adj); see local

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for locales

locale

1772, local, from French local, noun use of local (adj.), from Latin locus "place" (see locus). English spelling with -e (1816) probably is based on morale or else to indicate stress.

The word's right to exist depends upon the question whether the two indispensable words locality & scene give all the shades of meaning required, or whether something intermediate is useful. [Fowler]