Other forms: cities
A city is a very large town with tall buildings and many thousands of people. In the city, the city centre, a big city.
In Britain, city status is granted by the monarch rather than earned by size, which is why some cities are small and some large towns are not cities. The City, capitalised, means the financial district of London specifically. City hall, city break, inner city and city slicker are the common compounds. Note citywide; and that in American usage a city is any incorporated municipality, of any size.
1nouncityA very large town with many thousands of people.~98%
“The city has about half a million people and one bridge.”
2nounfinancialThe financial district of London.~2%
“He worked in the City for about eleven years.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 18 sentences found in the wild and placed 18 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
city is a large settlement.
Latin civitas meant the body of citizens rather than the buildings — the same root as civil, citizen and civilisation. To the Romans a city was its people, and the walls were incidental.
Middle English
cite
English, today
city
Built from
From Middle English cite. Middle English cite, Old French citet, Latin civitas (“city”), in la-cla - "citizenry", derived from cīvis (“fellow-citizen”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ḱey- (“lie down; settle”). Cognate with Old English hīwan (“members of one's household, servants”). See hewe. a doublet of civitas. Mostly displaced native burg, whence Modern English borough.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA