small-town
Americanadjective
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of, relating to, or characteristic of a town or village.
a typical, small-town general store.
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provincial or unsophisticated.
small-town manners.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of small-town
First recorded in 1880–85
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
After Route 66 was decommissioned as a highway in 1985, about 85% of the old route remained in use, often as small-town thoroughfares, country highways and frontage roads alongside Interstate 40.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2026
Hood County locals are relentless in their fight against the data centers, packing county meetings and town halls and voicing their fierce opposition to the facilities threatening to transform their charming, small-town community.
From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026
Murdaugh’s six-week trial in small-town Walterboro, S.C., became a global phenomenon as viewers were transfixed by the crumbling of a generations-old South Carolina family dynasty.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 13, 2026
He landed in Bermuda after departing the US state of Virginia on Thursday, where he and Queen Camilla concluded their state visit by meeting members of the public at a community parade in small-town America.
From BBC • May 2, 2026
When he enrolled at the University of Iowa, he felt liberated from the small-town ways of Muscatine, but not liberated enough.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
