町
Meaning in Englishtown, city area
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Word context
What it means
町 means a town or municipal district. It is used to designate a local administrative area or a community within a larger region, and it also refers to the neighborhood in everyday speech and in place names.
Main meanings
- Municipality: a town-level administrative unit smaller than a city
- Neighborhood or district: a local community within a city
- Block or street section: used in addresses and urban layout
- In fixed expressions and place names: town names and related terms
How to use it
Used in formal and casual contexts to designate municipal areas, neighborhoods, and parts of towns. In official language it appears in terms such as 町名, 町内, 町会, and 町長; in everyday speech it can refer to the area around one's home or a local community. Examples include 町を歩く, 町内会の活動, and 町名の表記.
Variants and close terms
- 街 — town or streets (machi)
- 市 — city (shi)
- 村 — village (mura)
- 町域 — town area (chōiki)
- 町内会 — neighborhood association (chōnaikai)
Etymology
町 has kun reading machi and on reading chou; the on-reading arose from Sino-Japanese pronunciation and is used in compounds, while kun-reading is used when the character stands alone or in native terms for a local area.
Word class
Noun (名詞)