ghetto
a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social pressures or economic hardships.
(formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.
any mode of living, working, etc., that results from stereotyping or biased treatment: job ghettos for women; ghettos for the elderly.
pertaining to or characteristic of life in a ghetto or the people who live there: ghetto culture.
Slang: Often Disparaging and Offensive. noting something that is considered to be unrefined, low-class, cheap, or inferior.
Origin of ghetto
1word story For ghetto
In English, ghetto in its original meaning dates from the early 17th century. By the late 19th century, ghetto had extended its meaning to “a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group.” Israel Zangwill’s novel Children of the Ghetto (published in 1892) is about the life and experiences of East European Jewish children in the East End of London.
Words Nearby ghetto
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use ghetto in a sentence
The San Francisco Chronicle documented a man in the Bay Area worrying that affordable housing might turn his area into a “ghetto.”
Relegated to low-class jobs and living in crowded ethnic ghettos, the Irish were portrayed as undesirable immigrants with less-than-average intelligence, who were prone to criminality.
Every American needs to take a history of Mexico class | Gabriela Laveaga | July 22, 2021 | Washington PostSophie, as a teen, was imprisoned in the Vilna ghetto from 1941 to 1943.
Duxbury High’s antisemitism scandal is more evidence that parents need to do better. Here’s how. | Linda K. Wertheimer | April 8, 2021 | Washington PostIn 1975, FBI Deputy Associate Director James Adams testified before the Senate that the bureau had three times as many “ghetto informants” as confidential sources within the Klan — as good an index as any of the agency's priorities.
While Hollywood looked for perfect villains, they were hiding in plain sight | Ann Hornaday | January 15, 2021 | Washington PostAn equal pay for work of equal value clause insulates women from the wage inequity inherent in pink ghetto jobs, or jobs that are underpaid by virtue of being predominantly female.
American capitalism needs equal-pay legislation. Canada is showing us how to make it work | matthewheimer | October 12, 2020 | Fortune
Neither was there a return to the loyal but small ghetto of Charter 77.
Although, I think all those ghetto/goth kids are doing something with Melissa Burns; all the weirdo kids.
Chloe Sevigny on ‘The Cosmopolitans,’ New York’s Frat Boy Takeover, and ‘Asshole’ Michael Alig | Marlow Stern | August 24, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhat about the ghetto residents who exhibit “mainstream” values on working, education, and child-rearing?
How Much Does 'Culture' Matter for 'Inner-City' Poverty? | Jamelle Bouie | March 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHis father was executed in 1942 by a German gendarme after attempting to smuggle a packet of saccharine into the ghetto.
The Week in Death: Irving Milchberg, the Teenage Gunrunner of the Warsaw Ghetto | The Telegraph | March 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTYet Three Crosses Square was something of a haven from the horrors of war and the nearby ghetto.
The Week in Death: Irving Milchberg, the Teenage Gunrunner of the Warsaw Ghetto | The Telegraph | March 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFor, in truth, the exterior appearance and the entrance-chambers are the worst part of the ghetto dwellings.
But the name of the Old Jewry reminds us of the ghetto which was an important part of old London.
Stories That Words Tell Us | Elizabeth O'NeillTo this roaming, hunting, exploring, adventurous breed what greater contrast is there than the denizens of the ghetto?
The Old World in the New | Edward Alsworth RossHence it has been suggested Judaicam became Italian Giudeica and thence became corrupted into ghetto.
They belong among the best ghetto stories that have been written in New York, and they display undoubted talent.
British Dictionary definitions for ghetto
/ (ˈɡɛtəʊ) /
sociol a densely populated slum area of a city inhabited by a socially and economically deprived minority
an area in a European city in which Jews were formerly required to live
a group or class of people that is segregated in some way
Origin of ghetto
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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