town hall

See also: townhall

English

The town hall of Norton, Massachusetts.

Pronunciation

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Noun

town hall (plural town halls)

1. A building that houses the local government offices of a town.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.

   • 2021 December 29, “Network News: Music train for dementia sufferers”, in RAIL, number 947, page 19:

     They enjoyed music from a live saxophonist during the journey before visiting Braintree Town Hall for refreshments and Christmas cake.

2. (by extension) The town council
3. A widely accessible meeting, particularly where the audience is allowed to interact with the speakers.

   The president plans to speak to a town hall of employees at its headquarters on Monday.

   • 1978, Faith McNulty, “Talk of the Town”, in New Yorker:

     " […] Sure, you can come down to City Hall when we have a Town Hall Meeting. Write to Maureen Connelly and she'll arrange it. […] "

   • 2004 October 8, Candidates Prepare for Second Presidential Debate, Paula Zahn (actor):

     And in just a few minutes, we'll bring you tonight's town hall debate from here at Washington University in Saint Louis.

   • 2012 May 3, “Daraja Girls Take Leadership Skills Acquired at the Academy to Their Communities During School Break”, in Daraja Academy‎^[1], archived from the original on 2021-08-24:

     The Form 2s are planning to host a town hall meeting with the women of Mara Moja and other local communities to teach the women more effective hygiene practices […]

Synonyms

• burgh chambers (Scotland)
• city hall (larger or specially-incorporated towns)
• common hall, common house (obsolete)
• townhouse (dated)

Translations

a building that houses the local government offices of a town

• Arabic: بَلَدِيَّة f (baladiyya)
• Armenian: քաղաքապետարան (hy) (kʻaġakʻapetaran)
• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܒܹܝܬ ܡܕܝܼܢ݇ܬܵܐ m (bēt mdīta)
• Basque: udaletxe sg
• Bavarian: Rathaus
• Belarusian: мэ́рыя f (méryja)
• Breton: ti-kêr (br)
• Catalan: casa de la vila f, casa del comú f, ajuntament (ca) m, casa consistorial f, casa comuna f, casa de la ciutat f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大會堂／大会堂 (zh) (dàhuìtáng)

• Czech: radnice (cs) f
• Danish: rådhus (da) n
• Dutch: stadhuis (nl) n, raadhuis (nl) n, gemeentehuis (nl) n
• Esperanto: urbdomo, urbodomo
• Finnish: kaupungintalo (fi), kunnantalo (fi)
• French: mairie (fr) f, hôtel de ville (fr) m, maison communale (fr) f (Wallonia), hôtel communal m (Wallonia)
• Galician: concello (gl) m, casa do concello f
• Georgian: მერია (meria)
• German: Rathaus (de) n, Bürgermeisteramt n, Gemeindehaus (de) n, Stadthaus (de) n
• Greek: δημαρχείο (el) n (dimarcheío)

  Ancient: πρυτανεῖον n (prutaneîon), ἀρχεῖον n (arkheîon)

• Hebrew: בִּנְיַן עִירִיָּה m (binyán 'iriyá)
• Hungarian: városháza (hu)
• Indonesian: balai kota (id)
• Irish: hall an bhaile m
• Italian: municipio (it) m
• Japanese: 町役場 (ja) (machiyakuba), 公会堂 (kōkaidō), 役場 (ja) (yakuba)
• Latin: curia f
• Latvian: rātsnams m
• Lithuanian: rotušė f
• Luxembourgish: Märei f
• Navajo: wááshindoon bighan
• Norwegian: rådhus (no) n
• Plautdietsch: Stautshus n
• Polish: ratusz (pl) m
• Portuguese: prefeitura (pt) f, câmara municipal (pt) f
• Romanian: primăria f
• Russian: мэ́рия (ru) f (mɛ́rija), муниципалите́т (ru) m (municipalitét), ра́туша (ru) f (rátuša)
• Spanish: ayuntamiento (es) m, consistorio (es) m, casa consistorial f, alcaldía (es) f
• Swedish: rådhus (sv) n
• Tagalog: bahay-pamahalaan
• Turkish: belediye binası
• Ukrainian: ме́рія f (mérija)
• Vietnamese: toà thị chính
• Volapük: konsälöp (vo)
• Yiddish: ראָטהויז n (rothoyz)