township

noun

1. a unit of local government, usually a subdivision of a county, found in most midwestern and northeastern states of the U.S. and in most Canadian provinces.
2. (in U.S. surveys of public land) a region or district approximately 6 miles square (93.2 sq. km), containing 36 sections.
3. English History.
   1. one of the local divisions or districts of a large parish, each containing a village or small town, usually with a church of its own.
   2. the manor, parish, etc., itself.
   3. its inhabitants.
4. (in Australia)
   1. a small town or settlement serving as the business center of a rural area.
   2. the business center of a town or suburb.
5. (in South Africa) a segregated residential settlement for blacks, located outside a city or town.

noun

1. a small town
2. (in the Scottish Highlands and islands) a small crofting community
3. (in the US and Canada) a territorial area, esp a subdivision of a county: often organized as a unit of local government
4. (formerly, in South Africa) a planned urban settlement of Black Africans or Coloured peopleCompare location (def. 4)
5. English history
   1. any of the local districts of a large parish, each division containing a village or small town
   2. the particular manor or parish itself as a territorial division
   3. the inhabitants of a township collectively

n.

Old English tunscipe “inhabitants or population of a town.” Applied in Middle English to “manor, parish, or other division of a hundred.” Specific sense of “local division or district in a parish, each with a village or small town and its own church” is from 1530s; as a local municipal division of a county in U.S. and Canada, first recorded 1685.