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capital city

Also known as capital

primary governing city of a top-level (country) or first-level and second-level subdivision (country, state, province, regency, etc) political entity

AI overview

A capital city is the primary city where a country's or region's government is based and where major political decisions are made. It matters because it serves as the administrative center that typically houses the seat of power, key government institutions, and symbolic landmarks that represent the political entity.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~33 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Tokyo, the capital of Japan, and the most populous metropolitan area in the world

A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational division, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses the government's offices and meeting places; the status as capital is often designated by law or a constitution. In some jurisdictions, including several countries, different branches of government are in different settlements, sometimes meaning there are multiple official capitals. In some cases, a distinction is made between the official (constitutional) capital and the seat of government.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “capital city” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.