91007
Please help me understand the differences between these 3 words meaning
"city": [町]{まち}, 都市 and 都会.

According to [this article](https://tadasiikeigo.com/machi/) hosted by
tadasiikeigo.com, 都市 is for big cities:

> 「都市」は、町以上に人口が密集していて栄えている場所です。

But the [都市 wikipedia page](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%83%BD%E5%B8%82)
states that size is not relevant for the word 都市:

> 「都市」と呼んだ場合には、規模の大小を問わない
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2021-10-29T05:14:26.937
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question
word-choice
Differences between 町, 都市 and 都会
They are difficult to summarize in a few words because they have to be
discussed from both the perspective of population and the perspective of
formality level.

In the perspective of population, roughly speaking:

  * (大都会: >1,000,000 people)
  * 都会: >100,000 people
  * 都市: >10,000 people
  * 町: >500 people

In the perspective of formality, 都会 and 町 are relatively informal words that
are commonly used in casual conversations and song lyrics. On the other hand,
都市 is a relatively formal and/or academic word typically used in news articles
and academic contexts. We say 町に行こう (referring to any populous district
nearby) but almost never say 都市に行こう. We say 都市開発 ("city/town development") or
都市計画 but never say 都会開発. When I hear the word 都市開発, I think of large cranes
and railway, whereas when I hear the word 町作り, I think of something more human
like flea markets, flower gardens and local _matsuri_.
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2021-11-01T04:10:06.487
91007
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answer
In addition to the excellent points @naruto made about scale and level of
formalism, here are some additional elements I collected from native speakers.

都会 is an abstract concept while 都市 is about individual large cities.

都会 cannot be counted, while 都市 can, as in 「東北地方にいくつかの都市があります」.

都会 is the opposite of 田舎. 都市 does not have an opposite. It is a stage beyond
集落, 村, and 町. Hence the story called 「田舎のネズミと都会のネズミ」.

The borders of 都会 are vague, while a 都市 has clear, official borders.

都会 is a kind of environment, characterized by '賑やか', '人が多い', '夜でも明るい', the
presence of buildings, and so on. It is strongly associated with a lifestyle,
that's why you can say 「都会暮らしは大変」but not 「都市暮らし」. You can say 「都会に住みたい」but not
「都市に住みたい」. In the same vein, 都会的 exists, but not 都市的.

都市 is about the cities themselves, not a fuzzy concept. 未来都市 makes sense, but
未来都会 does not. 「東京は日本で一番大きい都市です」
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