municipality

"Municipal" redirects here. For other uses of the term, see Municipal (disambiguation) A municipality is an administrative entity composed of a clearly defined territory and its population and commonly referring to a city, town, or village, or a small grouping of them. A municipality is typically governed by a mayor and a city council or municipal council.
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(n.)
A municipal district; a borough, city, or incorporated town or village.
  

MUNICIPAL - Strictly, this word applies only to what belongs to a city. Among the Romans, cities were called municipia; these cities voluntarily joined the Roman republic in relation to their sovereignty only, retaining, their laws, their liberties, and their magistrates, who were thence called municipal magistrates. With us this word has a more extensive meaning; for example, we call municipal law, not the law of a city only, but the law of the state. Municipal is used in contradistinction to international; thus we say an offence against the law of nations is an international offence, but one committed against a particular state or separate community, is a municipal offence.

MUNICIPALITY - The body of officers, taken collectively, belonging to a city, who are appointed to manage its affairs and defend its interests.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.

Noun
1. an urban district having corporate status and powers of self-government
(hypernym) urban area, populated area
(hyponym) city, metropolis, urban center
(part-meronym) ward
2. people living in a town or city having local self-government
(hypernym) gathering, assemblage
(hyponym) city, metropolis