noun

1. Historical in England, a parish or division of a parish, as a unit of territory and administration
2. in parts of the U.S. and Canada, a division of a county, constituting a unit of local government with administrative control of local schools, roads, etc.
3. in New England, town (sense )
4. a unit of territory in the U.S. land survey, generally six miles square, containing 36 mile-square sections, and sometimes, but not necessarily, coextensive with a governmental township
5. in South Africa, a segregated, nonwhite area in or just outside a city

Etymology: ME tunscipe < OE, people living in a tun: see town & -ship