A municipality or general-purpose district (see also: special-purpose district) is an administrative local area generally composed of a clearly defined territory and commonly referring to a city, town, or villagegovernment.
Municipalities are not necessarily the same as townships.
In the United States, the entities that have status as a municipality vary from state to state. Cities, towns, boroughs, or villages are common terms for municipalities. Townships, counties, and parishs are not generally considered to be municipalities, although there are exceptions. In some states, towns have a non-municipal status similar to townships.
In Portugal, a municipality (município/concelho) is the primary local administrative unit. Although it is a part of a district (distrito) for certain national administrative purposes, the municipality is not subordinate to the district and decentralization is doing away with the districts. A municipality contains one or more freguesias.
In Puerto Rico, there are no first order administrative divisions, and the municipalities (municipio) serves as second-order, but first level, administrative divisions.
In Montenegro, a municipality (opština;) is the topmost regional division
