Municipal

How to spell municipal

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce municipal

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does municipal mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to a town or city or its local government.

Municipal in a sentence

• The municipal council voted to repair the high street.

• Residents pay a municipal tax to fund local services.

Where does municipal come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin municipalis, meaning 'belonging to a free town', which was built on municipium, the Roman term for a self-governing community whose citizens held Roman rights while managing their own local affairs. That noun in turn rests on municeps, a person who 'takes on civic duties', formed from munus, meaning 'duty, obligation, or public service', joined with capere, meaning 'to take'. So at its heart the word literally describes someone who takes up the shared duties of a town, a neat reminder that municipal government is about local public service. English borrowed it in the sixteenth century, at first applying it to the internal affairs of a town or city. The same munus root surfaces in 'remuneration' and 'munificent', while capere lies behind 'capture' and 'receive'. The spelling trap is the single c and single p with the unstressed schwa endings, so it helps to recall the buried capere, 'to take', sitting in the middle.

How the word is built

• muni- (from munus: duty, public service)
• -cip- (from capere: to take)
• -al (adjective suffix)