DictionaryAI

district

DIS-trikt/ˈdɪstɹɪkt/

Pluraldistricts

Verbdistricts, districting, districted

5 meanings of district

Practice

  1. 1
    official areanouncountable
    A part of a country, county or city marked off as an official division for government or administration, such as an electoral district, a school district or a district within an English county.

    The council redrew the boundaries of each electoral district before the vote.

    A new health district was created to manage the region's hospitals.

  2. 2
    part of townnouncountable
    A part of a city or region known for a particular feature, such as its shops or industry.

    Tourists crowd the historic district to photograph its old buildings.

    The city's financial district empties out completely on weekends.

    UsageUsually a word for its feature comes first: the financial district, the theater district; names take a capital: the Lake District.

    Similarquarter, area, neighborhood, zone

    Note

    Here the line is drawn by character rather than by law. An area earns the name through what it is known for, not through who governs it, which sets it apart from the administrative sense.

  3. 3
    divide upverbtransitive
    To divide an area into administrative or other separate districts.

    Lawmakers will district the territory according to population.

    The commission districted the county into seven separate zones.

    UsageOften with into: districted into seven zones.

    Similardivide, partition, zone

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    adjectiveobsolete
    Marked by strictness and severity; rigorous or harsh.
    punishing with the rod of district severity
    1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes
    Note

    An adjective that kept the word's Latin grip. Latin districtus, from distringere, "to draw asunder, compel," is the same source as the administrative noun. John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (1563) still speaks of "the rod of district severity," meaning punishment applied with full rigor.

  2. 5
    noun
    In coal mining, a particular section of the coalface, usually given its own name, where certain seams are being mined.

Practice

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Origin

From French district, from Medieval Latin districtus, meaning the area within which a lord could exercise his power, from Latin distringere ("to draw asunder, compel"), formed from dis- ("apart") plus stringere ("to draw tight"). It is a doublet of Detroit.

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts