Definition of "territory" []

• An area of land; a region. (noun)
• The land and waters under the jurisdiction of a government. (noun)
• A political subdivision of a country. (noun)
• A geographic region, such as a colonial possession, that is dependent on an external government: the territories of the Holy Roman Empire. (noun)
• A subdivision of the United States that is not a state and is administered by an appointed or elected governor and elected legislature. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Both areas were then organized as one territory, Xinjiang (literally, “new territory”), with its capital at Urumchi; it became a province in 1884."
• "Congress made up its mind for good on the 16th of July, 1790, and decided that the President should be intrusted with the care of choosing “on the river Potomac” a territory, ten miles square, which should become the “Federal territory” and the permanent seat of the Government of the United States."
• "In its extent the first ordinance covered _all territory_ ceded or to be ceded; the second ordinance covered only the territory north west of the"