county town
- noun
- /ˈkaʊnti taʊn/
- UK
:
capital del condado
- Formed in Taunton, the county town of Somerset in 2008, the awesomely named Flayed Disciple have been performing their own brand of brutal thrash metal ever since.
Examples
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A visit to the Roman Wall will lead the visitor to explore the Tyne Valley and visit the attractive town of Corbridge and the county town of Hexham with its ancient abbey.
Academic text (1999) -
So it's a small apartment on a back street in an in an Ocean County town, popular town.
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Prime Minister Hu Jintao gave personally high priority instructions to do whatever is necessary to help the people in the disaster area. Fifteen county towns have been damaged to various degrees.
Blog text (23) -
I shared a story with my readers last week where, in three separate instances—two in West Virginia and one in North Carolina, all coal county towns—I was turned away when offering up my long-standing annual donation to local organizations.
Blog text (2) -
p238 Rosedale, the country seat of the Jocelyn family for four generations, was ideally situated between the inland county town of Lewes and the fashionable coastal spa of Brighton, and only a six-hour drive from London in fine weather.
Fiction book (1990) -
The county town of Cambridge has a rich history dating back to the Roman era.
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As the county town of Kent, Maidstone houses the local government offices and courts.
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Every resident of the county town enjoys the annual fair hosted in the central park.
Synonyms
6
4.3
A town or city where the county government has its main offices
A town that is the main place for county government, like where the courthouse is
How Central
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the town that serves as the administrative center of a county' is directly and compositionally derived from 'county' (a territorial/administrative division) + 'town' (a settlement), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to the town of that county, typically its administrative center. This follows common noun-compound patterns and has clear cross-linguistic parallels, making the phrase predictable.
Etymology
County town comes from the simple idea of the town where the county kept its government, courts and records, so people in the area went there for official business. That's why it means 'the main town' of a county where its offices are.