village

village — noun

1. a place in the countryside where people live, made up of houses, a shop or two,

1.nounA2
Definition

a place in the countryside where people live, made up of houses, a shop or two, and sometimes a school or church

Example

Tomás grew up in a small mountain village with three streets and one shop.

modifier: mountain village / coastal village / fishing village

The old stone church stands at the village centre, next to the village square.

prepositional phrase: at the village centre

Common collocations
  • mountain village
  • fishing village
  • coastal village
  • village square
  • village church
  • village shop
  • village school
  • remote village
  • tiny village
  • picturesque village
Synonyms
  • hamlet

    much smaller than a village, often with no shop or church

  • settlement

    more general and formal; can refer to any small group of homes

  • town

    larger than a village, with more facilities and services

Antonyms
  • city

    a very large and densely populated urban area

  • metropolis

    a very large, important city, far bigger than any village

Grammar Patterns

a/the + village

village + noun (modifier)

Usage Note

In informal British English, you may hear reference to 'the village' to mean a village with a shop, a pub, and a church. American English uses 'village' less frequently for everyday settlements and more often for historical or incorporated communities.

Common Mistakes

I live in a village with ten million people.
I live in a city with ten million people.
A village is much smaller than a city, typically with only a few hundred to a few thousand residents.
We visited a village town yesterday.
We visited a village yesterday.
'Village' alone already describes the type of settlement; adding 'town' is redundant.

2. the people living in a village, thought of as one group or community

2.nounA2
Definition

the people living in a village, thought of as one group or community

Example

The whole village turned out to welcome Ishaan, the new teacher, at the community hall.

collective noun: the whole village + turned out (singular verb)

The village decided to build a new clinic after the flood damaged their old one.

Common collocations
  • the whole village
  • the entire village
  • village elder
  • village meeting
  • village community
  • village council
Synonyms
  • community

    broader term that can apply to any group of people living together, not only in a village

  • residents

    more formal and literal; focuses on individuals rather than the group as a whole

  • villagers

    more direct synonym but emphasises individuals rather than the collective

Antonyms
  • city dwellers

    people living in a city, contrasting with village residents

Grammar Patterns

the whole/entire village + singular verb

Usage Note

In this sense, 'village' takes a singular verb even though it refers to many people: 'The village has agreed on a plan.' This is the same pattern as 'team', 'family', or 'committee' in their collective sense.

Common Mistakes

The village have decided to build a new road.
The village has decided to build a new road.
When referring to the people as a single unit, use a singular verb in standard English.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

A 'village' is a small group of homes in the countryside, usually with a shop or a church. A 'hamlet' is even smaller — just a handful of houses with no services at all, often part of a larger village. 'Settlement' is a broad, formal term for any place where people have built homes, from a tiny cluster to a small town. A 'town' is larger than a village, with more shops, schools, and often its own local government. For example, you might say 'the nearest town is a twenty-minute drive from our village', but you would not call a place with a supermarket and a hospital a 'village'.

hamletsettlement ↗town ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • village life
  • village community
  • village shop
  • village hall
  • village school

Phrases

  • in the same village
  • from village to village
  • the heart of the village

Prepositions

  • in a village
  • to a village
  • outside a village
  • near a village

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

The word 'village' comes from Old French 'village', meaning a group of houses, which in turn comes from Latin 'villa' — a country house or farmstead. It entered English around the 1400s, replacing older Old English words like 'tūn' (which became 'town'). Over time, 'village' settled into its modern meaning: a rural settlement smaller than a town.