village

noun

vil·​lage ˈvi-lij 

often attributive

1

a

: a settlement usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town

b

: an incorporated minor municipality

2

: the residents of a village

3

: something (such as an aggregation of burrows or nests) suggesting a village

4

: a territorial area having the status of a village especially as a unit of local government

Synonyms of village

• hamlet

Examples of village in a Sentence

Entire villages come to see the parade.

we stayed in a charming bed-and-breakfast in a lakeside village

Recent Examples on the Web

These Ijaw villages traditionally traded goods with hinterland ethnic groups such as the Igbo and Ibibio. —Noo Saro-Wiwa, The Dial, 24 Mar. 2026

About 93% of 35,000 villages, towns and cities selected their mayors in the first round last week, with mostly one or two candidates, not associated with any party, competing. —Arkansas Online, 23 Mar. 2026

Authorities said he was killed in a collision with a Palestinian vehicle in an area north of the villages attacked. —Sam Metz, Los Angeles Times, 23 Mar. 2026

The Raceway, which operated from the mid-1950s through the 1970s, featured a quarter-mile track at the Wally Smith farm, a mile-and-a-half west of town on Route 34 that was drawing three times the village’s total population for races during its heyday, local historians have said. —Linda Girardi, Chicago Tribune, 23 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French vilage, from vil manorial estate, farmstead, from Latin villa

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing village

• global village
• inter-village
• Potemkin village

Rhymes for village

• millage
• pillage
• spillage

Kids Definition

village

noun

vil·​lage ˈvil-ij 

1

: a place somewhat smaller than a town

2

: the people living in a village