locale

[loh-kal, -kahl] /loʊˈkæl, -ˈkɑl/
noun
1.
a place or locality, especially with reference to events or circumstances connected with it:
to move to a warmer locale.
2.
the scene or setting, as of a novel, play, or motion picture:
The locale is a small Kansas town just before World War I.
Origin
1765-75; alteration of earlier local < French: noun use of the adj. See local
Can be confused
local, locale, locality, location.
Synonyms
1. location, site, spot.
Examples from the web for locales
  • Collective bargaining adheres to precedent and relies on comparisons to other unionized locales.
  • Other colleges have selected on-campus locales, however.
  • But as companies push their business into ever more remote locales, so they have sought protection against more exotic risks.
  • The choice of locales available to them is growing rapidly.
  • Farmers got trapped in their declining sector and in their depressed locales.
  • All that changed when bark and ambrosia beetles started making long-distance trips from the locales in which they evolved.
  • He photocopies it himself and hand-delivers it to coffee shops and other digerati-haunted locales.
  • For sales meetings, business staffers would be whisked off to exotic locales for three-day intensives.
  • Each act unfolds in real time, in precisely mapped locales, with no major improbabilities impeding the flow of events.
  • The good news, for stumblebums in other locales, is that the injury doesn't necessarily require any care at all.
British Dictionary definitions for locales

locale

/ləʊˈkɑːl/
noun
1.
a place or area, esp with reference to events connected with it
Word Origin
C18: from French local (n use of adj); see local
Word Origin and History for locales

locale

n.

1772, local, from French local, noun use of local (adj.), from Latin locus "place" (see locus). English spelling with -e (1816) probably is based on morale or else to indicate stress.

The word's right to exist depends upon the question whether the two indispensable words locality & scene give all the shades of meaning required, or whether something intermediate is useful. [Fowler]