village

The word “village” means a small community of houses, smaller than a town, typically in a rural area. In plain terms, a small place where people live, bigger than a hamlet but smaller than a town.

“Village” is pronounced VIH-lihj (/ˈvɪlɪd͡ʒ/ in IPA).

Here is “village” used in a sentence: “The village had one pub, a church, and a small shop.”

Words with a similar meaning to “village” include thorp.

“Village” is a noun.

The word “village” comes from Latin. From Old French village, from Latin vīllāticus, related to villa.

“Village” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Village” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a small community of houses, smaller than a town, typically in a rural area.

The main differences are size and services. A village is a small rural settlement with relatively few houses and limited amenities, often just a shop, pub, or church. A town is larger and more developed, with shops, schools, and its own local government. Villages usually depend on nearby towns for bigger services.

A hamlet is even smaller than a village. It is a tiny cluster of houses with almost no shared amenities and, traditionally, no church. A village is larger and usually has a focal point such as a church, shop, or green. In short, hamlets are the smallest rural settlements of all.

There is no fixed figure, and definitions vary by country. Broadly, a village holds anywhere from a hundred to a few thousand residents — larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town. What matters as much as population is its rural character and limited range of local services.