precinct
n. countablen. a specific area of a city that is used for a particular purpose, like shopping or police work. It can also mean the area around a building like a church.
n. a defined district of a city or town, often designated for specific administrative, commercial, or police purposes. It may also refer to the enclosed area immediately surrounding a building or institution.
The police station is located in the fourth precinct.
The city council decided to turn the historic downtown area into a pedestrian precinct to encourage tourism.
While the inner precinct of the cathedral remains a quiet sanctuary, the surrounding streets have become a bustling hub of modern commerce and traffic.
From Middle English precinct, precincte, early 15th century, in sense of “district for government purposes”, from Medieval Latin precinctum, alternative form of praecinctum (“enclosure, boundary line”), neuter singular of praecinctus, perfect passive participle of Latin praecingō (“surround, gird”), from prae (“before”) + cingō (“surround, encircle”), from which also cinch. Cognate to Italian precingere (“to encircle”).
Often used with 'pedestrian' to describe car-free zones or with numbers to identify police districts.