The adjective local describes something related a specific place. The potholes on a certain street in Pringle, Pennsylvania, might merit a story in the local newspaper.
Locate, location, locale — they all look and sound like local thanks to the Latin root locus, which means "place." Something that's local is limited to a specific place, like a particular neighborhood or city. Local also can describe places that aren't, well, places — they're more like areas. For example, a dentist might administer a local anesthetic to numb your mouth when filling a cavity. That means the anesthetic acts only on a specific area of the body.
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adjn |
of or belonging to or characteristic of a particular locality or neighborhood
public transport consisting of a bus or train that stops at all stations or stops
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2 |
adjn |
affecting only a restricted part or area of the body
anesthetic that numbs a particular area of the body
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