Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city[1]. Though generally located in rural areas, the term urban village may be applied to certain urban neighbourhoods. Villages normally are permanent with fixed dwellings, however transient villages[2] can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, as against being scattered broadly over the landscape (‘dispersed settlement’).
Throughout the human past, villages have been the usual form of community for agricultural societies, and even for some non-agricultural societies. Towns and cities were few, and were home to only a small proportion of the population. The Industrial Revolution caused many villages to grow into towns and cities; this trend of urbanisation has continued and hastened since, though not always in connection with industrialisation. Villages have thus been eclipsed in importance, as units of human society and settlement.