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Glite Dictionary
county seat

county seat

6 4.3
A town or city where the county government has its main offices
  • noun
  • /ˈkaʊnti siːt/
  • US
translation icon : capital del condado
  • Residents organized the county in 1886, designating Mangum as the county seat.
  • county seat town

So you have that you're you're the county seat is where the courthouse is.

Examples

  • Norfolk, county seat of Madison County, with a population of 24,000, is a classic American small city.

    Academic text (2007)

  • The county seat, Richmond, has 6,000 of the county's population of 23,000.

    Academic text (2007)

  • What about the land records down at county seat?

    Megaconda (2010)

  • - By the way, we are the county seat.

    Doc Hollywood (1991)

  • Specifically, this first Council was formed in the county seat of Indianola.

    Academic text (2017)

  • The day of his test, Max set out alone on the half-hour drive to the county seat.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Indiana is the county seat and the largest town in Indiana County, population 30,000.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Augustus Coggins was born in 1868 and grew up in Canton, the county seat of Cherokee.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Other heavily built-up nodes include Clearwater, the county seat, and numerous affluent gulf-side residential and tourist communities.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Redwood City, south of San Francisco, is the county seat of San Mateo County.

Synonyms

county town
vscounty seat
  • UK
3.4

A town where the county government has its main offices

is the physical site of the local government offices
shire town
vscounty seat
8.4

A town that is the main place for county government, like where the courthouse is

is the general term for the same administrative role without region

How Central

county seat
  • US
6 4.3
town
∞ 1.0
village
∞ 1.0
hamlet
24 5.0

Surface Forms

county seat singular
county seats plural

Morphology

county + seat

The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'county' (a local government region) plus 'seat' (an administrative or governmental center). This noun–noun composition follows a common compositional pattern and has clear cross‑linguistic equivalents, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

The noun county seat comes from the idea of a seat as a chair or place of power where officials sit. So the county seat is 'the town where the county government is located', the place with the courthouse and county offices.