company town
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.08 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A town, city, or other municipality in which a single large business has a controlling influence over the economy and, sometimes, over the societal structure and the local government.
Example Sentences
- "The workmen lived farther along the line, in a sort of company town, which at present greatly resembled a Western mining-camp, though ultimately it was to be a bungalow town."
- "Now here we have a company town depicted by our authority in the UMW [United Mine Workers] as one of the worst imaginable company towns, where the employer ran the schools, the local administration of justice, and even the churches."
- "Back in the days when Poughkeepsie was a company town and the company was International Business Machines, it wasn't unusual for 18-year-olds in Poughkeepsie to go straight from high school to I.B.M."
- "The firm's sprawling factory complexes lie only a short distance from the town center, and, as in any company town, the paychecks of Toyota employees are the main source of support for its restaurants and shops."