township

From Middle English towneship, townschip, tounshipe, tunscipe, from Old English tūnsċipe (“the inhabitants of a town; township”), equivalent to town +‎ -ship.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtaʊnʃɪp/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Audio (US):

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township (plural townships)

1. The territory of a town.
   • 1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:

     The train is usually crowded and half the township of Forres seems to turn out to watch it go off.

   • 2010, Rajib Shaw, Danai Thaitakoo, Water Communities‎^[1], Emerald Books, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 252:

     Furthermore, everyone knows that the crops grown at Chou-Shui River are of high quality, like the rice of Siluo Township, watermelons of Erlun Township, garlic of Cihtong Township, flowers of Shijo Township, guava of Shetou Township, and so on.

   • 2018 June 18, Joshua Berlinger, “Papua New Guinea declares 9-month state of emergency due to riots”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Tondop said the township of Mendi is slowly getting back to normal.

2. (US, Canada) A subdivision of a county.
3. (South Africa, pre-1994) An area set aside for nonwhite occupation.
   • 1972, Daily Dispatch:

     In addition, the council has completed the planning of a new Coloured township on the site of the existing African township.

4. (South Africa, post-1994) A nonwhite (usually subeconomic) area attached to a city.
   • 2020 April 28, Christina Macfarlane, “‘There is nothing worse than hunger,’ says South Africa hero Siya Kolisi of helping townships during lockdown”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     So, the man from the townships can certainly empathize with the pain lockdown is inflicting on the less fortunate in his country.

5. (Australia, New Zealand) A small town.

• In the US (derived from an obsolete UK usage), the term "township" refers to a division of a county, and may include one or more towns, villages, hamlets, or small cities. It may also be an administrative district for an unincorporated rural area. The exact nature of a township, and its role in local administration, differs from state to state. Not every state has townships, more detail can be found in the article Township (United States).

• squatter camp

• Portuguese: township

Jean Branford, editor (1978), A Dictionary of South African English, Oxford

• IPA^(key): /tawn.ʃip/

township m (plural townships)

1. township (in South Africa)
2. (North America) canton

township

1. (historical) township (area set aside for non-white occupation in South Africa)