fortified town

Meanings

1. 1nouncountable

   A town surrounded by walls, ditches, or other defenses built to protect it from attack.

   Grammar: Countable: use 'a fortified town' or the plural 'fortified towns'.

   Patterns

   • a fortified town on the coast
   • the walls of a fortified town
   • a heavily fortified town

   We walked along the old walls of the fortified town.

   In the Middle Ages, a fortified town could hold out for months against an army.

   The museum explains how the fortified town was defended.

2. 2nouncountable

   A town in a war zone that has been given extra defenses such as barricades, bunkers, or checkpoints.

   Grammar: Countable; often used with words like 'heavily' or 'lightly'.

   Patterns

   • a heavily fortified town
   • turn a town into a fortified town

   Reporters described a heavily fortified town ringed with checkpoints.

   Troops turned the border town into a fortified town within weeks.

Word forms

Common combinations

a fortified town wall

Part of the fortified town wall still stands today.

a medieval fortified town

Carcassonne is a famous medieval fortified town.

heavily fortified town

The army withdrew from the heavily fortified town.

the gates of a fortified town

Merchants paid a toll at the gates of the fortified town.

Synonyms and how they differ

walled town

Emphasizes stone walls in particular; use it when walls are the main defense rather than ditches or modern barriers.

stronghold

Usually a fortress or a place of resistance rather than a whole town with streets and houses.

garrison town

Focuses on the soldiers stationed there, not on the physical defenses.

Opposites

Word family

fortify verb

to make a place stronger against attack

fortification noun

a wall, ditch, or other defensive structure

fort noun

a strong building used by soldiers for defense

fortress noun

a very large, strongly built fort or castle

Commonly confused: fortified town or fortified wine?

Practice

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