suburban
Americanadjective
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pertaining to, inhabiting, or being in a suburb or the suburbs of a city or town.
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characteristic of a suburb or suburbs.
noun
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a suburbanite.
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a short overcoat for casual wear.
adjective
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of, relating to, situated in, or inhabiting a suburb or the suburbs
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characteristic of or typifying a suburb or the suburbs
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pejorative narrow or unadventurous in outlook
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of suburban
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin suburbānus “located close to a city (especially to Rome),” equivalent to sub- + urb- (stem of urbs “city”) + -ānus adjective suffix; see origin at sub-, urban
Explanation
Suburban refers to areas just beyond a city’s border. Your parents might have grown up in the city and then moved to a more suburban area after they had kids. If you see a lot of malls, plus houses that all look the same, and you're just outside a city, then you're in a suburban area: the suburbs. If you're from the suburbs, the chaos of New York City might be shocking. Suburban areas aren't as busy as urban (city) areas, but there's a lot more going on than in rural areas — farmland. One difference between suburban and urban areas is the urban areas have more cabs and public transportation.
Vocabulary lists containing suburban
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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.
Starlink’s most serious competitor in rural and suburban areas is 5G home internet, according to Cooper.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
Todd Montgomery pops the lid off a small tube and taps out hundreds of mosquitoes into the backyard of a suburban home outside Washington.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Back in 2022, the price of two-by-fours was falling after a record-setting surge during the Covid-19 pandemic, which set off a suburban building boom and sent stuck-at-home Americans into a do-it-yourself frenzy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Each of the riders covers upward of 30 miles a day to treat every catch basin in the city’s urban and suburban areas, about 75,000 total, over the course of a month.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
Now, she finds herself in a suburban neighborhood of big houses with three-car garages.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
