cities
- 1Plural of city.
Coastal cities face rising risks from storms and flooding.
The two cities are connected by a high-speed rail line.
Note
A regular plural of the consonant-plus-y kind: the final y becomes ies, as party becomes parties, rather than taking a bare s. The plural serves the common-noun meanings, from any large settlement to the historical British city granted a royal charter or holding a cathedral. The names stay singular: the City of London and Manchester City are proper nouns, and a name does not pluralize.
- 2Plural of citie, an obsolete spelling of city.
Note
Here the old spelling disappears in the plural. Citie, current in early modern texts, simply adds s, while city swaps y for ies. Both land on the same cities, so the plural looks entirely present-day, and only the singular betrays the period. In modern writing citie is obsolete and reads as deliberate archaism, but the plural needs no adjustment at all.
cities is a form of city
city, noun: A large settlement, usually bigger than a town, or a place formally granted the title of city, which in the UK may be small. Full entry
- Forms
- citycities plural
- Spelling
- city → cities: change y to i, add -es
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
Use it in a sentence
Write your own sentence with cities, and AI will tell you whether it fits and which meaning you used.