municipal

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French municipal, from Latin mūnicipālis (“of or belonging to a citizen or a free town”), from mūniceps (“a citizen, an inhabitant of a free town”), from mūnus (“duty”) + capiō (“to take”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mjuˈnɪsɪpəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mu‧ni‧ci‧pal

Adjective

municipal (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to a municipality (a city or a corporation having the right of administering local government).
   • 2016 May 4, Nicky Woolf, “Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     More than 100 provincial and municipal firefighters were brought in, with helicopters and aircraft used to drop water and fire retardant, while bulldozers were digging firebreaks.

2. Of or pertaining to the internal affairs of a nation.

Synonyms

• civic

Derived terms

• antimunicipal
• bimunicipal
• intermunicipal
• intramunicipal
• monomunicipal
• municipal borough
• municipal corporation
• municipal engineering
• municipal flag
• municipal incorporation
• municipalise
• municipalism
• municipality
• municipalization
• municipalize
• municipally
• municipal president
• municipal seat
• nonmunicipal
• premunicipal
• quasimunicipal
• submunicipal

Related terms

• munificence
• munificent
• remunerate
• remuneration

Translations

pertaining to city

• Arabic: مَدَنِيّ (madaniyy)
• Aragonese: monezipal
• Asturian: municipal (ast)
• Belarusian: гарадскі́ (haradskí), място́вы (mjastóvy), муніцыпа́льны (municypálʹny)
• Bulgarian: гра́дски (bg) (grádski), муниципа́лен (municipálen)
• Catalan: municipal (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 城市的 (zh) (chéngshì de), 市立 (zh) (shìlì)

• Czech: městský (cs) m
• Dutch: gemeentelijk (nl)
• Esperanto: municipa
• Finnish: kunnallinen (fi), kunnan (fi)
• French: municipal (fr) m
• Galician: municipal (gl)
• Georgian: საქალაქო (sakalako), მუნიციპალური (municiṗaluri), თვითმმართველი (tvitmmartveli)
• German: munizipal (de), Stadt- (de)
• Hindi: नगरीय (hi) (nagrīya)
• Hungarian: községi (hu), városi (hu)
• Icelandic: borgar-, bæjar-, sveitar-
• Ido: municip-ala
• Irish: bardasach
• Italian: civico (it), comunale (it)
• Japanese: 市立 (ja) (しりつ, shiritsu), 都市の (ja) (としの, toshi no)
• Korean: 시립의 (ko) (siribui), 도시의 (ko) (dosiui)
• Latin: mūnicipālis
• Macedonian: градски (gradski)
• Malay: perbandaran (ms)
• Norwegian: kommunal, kommune-
• Persian: شهری (fa) (šahri)
• Polish: miejski (pl), municypalny (pl)
• Portuguese: municipal (pt)
• Punjabi: ਨਾਗਰਿਕ (nāgrik)
• Romanian: municipal (ro)
• Russian: городско́й (ru) (gorodskój), муниципа́льный (ru) (municipálʹnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гра̀дскӣ

  Latin: gràdskī (sh)

• Slovak: mestský (sk)
• Slovene: mesten
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: měsćański

• Spanish: municipal (es)
• Swedish: kommun-
• Tajik: шаҳрӣ (šahri)
• Ukrainian: міськи́й (uk) (misʹkýj), муніципа́льний (municypálʹnyj)

pertaining to state

• Polish: stanowy (pl)

Noun

municipal (plural municipals)

1. (finance) A financial instrument issued by a municipality.
   • 2008 April 21, Julie Connelly, “Muni Bonds, Safe With High Yields”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     “This might be the last great opportunity for preretirement baby boomers to buy municipals at such attractive levels,” said Janet Fiorenza, head of municipal fixed income at Lehman Brothers Asset Management.

Further reading

• “municipal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “municipal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin municipālis (“of or belonging to a citizen or a free town”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [mu.ni.siˈpal]
• Rhymes: -al

• Audio (Central):

  (file)

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Adjective

municipal m or f (masculine and feminine plural municipals)

1. municipal

Derived terms

• municipalitat

Related terms

• municipi

Further reading

• “municipal”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “municipal”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “municipal” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “municipal” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mūnicipālis (“of or belonging to a citizen or a free town”), from mūniceps (“a citizen, an inhabitant of a free town”), from mūnus (“duty”) + capiō (“to take”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /my.ni.si.pal/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Adjective

municipal (feminine municipale, masculine plural municipaux, feminine plural municipales)

1. municipal

Derived terms

• municipalité

Related terms

• municipe

Further reading

• “municipal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Portuguese

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin mūnicipālis. By surface analysis, município +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /mu.ni.siˈpaw/ [mu.ni.siˈpaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mu.ni.siˈpal/ [mu.ni.siˈpaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /mu.ni.siˈpal/ [mu.ni.siˈpaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /mu.ni.siˈpa.li/

• Rhymes: -al, -aw
• Hyphenation: mu‧ni‧ci‧pal

Adjective

municipal m or f (plural municipais)

1. municipal
2. (relational) town
3. civic

Derived terms

• municipalmente

Further reading

• “municipal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French municipal.

Adjective

municipal m or n (feminine singular municipală, masculine plural municipali, feminine/neuter plural municipale)

1. municipal

Declension

Declension of municipal

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	municipal		municipală		municipali	municipale
	definite	municipalul		municipala		municipalii	municipalele
genitive- dative	indefinite	municipal		municipale		municipali	municipale
	definite	municipalului		municipalei		municipalilor	municipalelor

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin municipālis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muniθiˈpal/ [mu.ni.θiˈpal] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /munisiˈpal/ [mu.ni.siˈpal] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: mu‧ni‧ci‧pal

Adjective

municipal m or f (masculine and feminine plural municipales)

1. municipal

Derived terms

• junta municipal
• municipalmente
• presidente municipal
• término municipal

Related terms

• municipalidad
• municipio

Further reading

• “municipal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025