What is a City?

The Cambridge English Dictionary defines 'city' as 'a large town' or 'any town in the UK which has a cathedral'. The Oxford English dictionary defines a 'city' as a large town, in particular a town created a city by charter and containing a cathedral. This is the common meaning of the word throughout the world, and in most countries the size of a town is the deciding factor over whether it has city status. Large towns are automatically considered to be cities. This is logical and makes good sense; however this is not the way it is done here in the UK.

Despite having a parliamentary democracy, many decisions within the UK are not open to the general public, but instead they are controlled by the monarchy or parts of the British government which answer directory to the monarchy, irrespective of which political party is in office at the time. The decision to grant a town city status is one such decision, city status is not granted automatically just because a town becomes very large and its population has grown, or because of a cathedral. A town in the UK must be granted city status by the British monarch, The Queen.

According to the part of the British government known as the Department for Constitutional Affairs:

"City status is a rare mark of distinction granted by the Sovereign and conferred by Letters Patent. It is granted by personal Command of The Queen, on the advice of Her Ministers. It is for Her Majesty The Queen to decide when a competition for city status should be held. Competitions are usually held on occasions such as important Royal anniversaries."

Because of this peculiarity there is a discrepancy between the common meaning of the word 'city' and the 'official' meaning.

• City Status Criteria in the UK
• Largest UK Cities
• Oldest UK Cities
• Dates of Incorporation City Status
• Large Cities - Conurbations and Metropolises
• City Twinning in the UK
• Wikipedia Cities Information
• Search Dictionaries for City Meanings