township

noun

town·​ship ˈtau̇n-ˌship 

1

a

: town sense 5

b

: a unit of local government in some northeastern and north central states usually having a chief administrative officer or board

c

: an unorganized subdivision of the county in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont

d

: an electoral and administrative district of the county in the southern U.S.

2

: a division of territory in surveys of U.S. public land containing 36 sections or 36 square miles

3

: an area in the Republic of South Africa that was segregated under apartheid for occupation by persons of non-European descent

4

: an ancient unit of administration in England identical in area with or a division of a parish

Examples of township in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Rediscovery of ancient creatures Back in the 1970s, the team discovered the fossils eroding from a rock formation on the Noonkanbah cattle station, located east of the isolated township of Derby in the Kimberley. —Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 23 Feb. 2026

Money and resources flowed almost entirely to sports favored by whites—cricket and rugby—while soccer was left mostly to Black South Africans, playing in substandard, ramshackle stadiums in squalid townships. —Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 23 Feb. 2026

Iowa could get rid of townships as a unit of government and eliminate their boards of trustees, transferring their local authority to their respective counties. —Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register, 20 Feb. 2026

Siko said $300,000 will be allocated directly to the township's operating reserve. —Erika Stanish, CBS News, 20 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 4

Kids Definition

township

noun

town·​ship ˈtau̇n-ˌship 

1

: a unit of local government in some northeastern and north central states

2

: a division of territory in surveys of U.S. public land containing 36 square miles (about 93 square kilometers)