A literary term encompassing urban and rural settlements; not used in casual conversation. In modern Japanese, 都市, 町, or 村 are preferred depending on size.
The expression 都邑 can be found in old documents.
この地方には小さな都邑が点在している。
Small towns and villages are scattered throughout this region.
A Sino-Japanese compound of 都 (city, capital) and 邑 (village, settlement). The exact historical derivation is uncertain; it appears in classical Chinese and was adopted into literary Japanese.