town hall

noun

1

: a public building used for town-government offices and meetings

2

: an event at which a public official or political candidate addresses an audience by answering questions posed by individual members

Town halls have lost some of their spontaneity. The 80 or so undecided voters chosen for Tuesday's event must submit their questions in advance and moderator Candy Crowley of CNN will decide which people to call on.

—Connie Cass

Examples of town hall in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Unsurprisingly, a moderator for these town halls, American Economic Liberties Project senior advisor Alvaro Bedoya, cheered on the legal challenges. — Katie Kilkenny, HollywoodReporter, 13 July 2026

On Monday night, the city hosted its second virtual town hall on the Upper East Side cluster. — Ali Bauman, CBS News, 13 July 2026

The week’s biggest stories Boyle Heights fire A raucous town hall devolved into boos and chants as residents blamed a burning Lineage cold-storage warehouse for toxic smoke. — Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2026

After the planning board vote, Miami City Commissioner Damian Pardo held a town hall meeting at which Regalado and other county officials sought to allay those fears, promising to shield the neighborhood and develop traffic-mitigation measures. — Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 10 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for town hall

• aldol
• armhole
• atoll
• awol
• backhaul
• banal
• baseball
• befall
• cabal
• catchall
• cecal
• centrale

Kids Definition

town hall

noun

: a public building used for offices and meetings of town government