Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

outskirts

British  
/ ˈaʊtˌskɜːts /

plural noun

  1. (sometimes singular) outlying or bordering areas, districts, etc, as of a city

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Explanation

Some people like to live downtown. Others prefer the open spaces of the suburbs. But if you live in between the two, you are in the outskirts, the place where the city ends and the suburbs begin. Outskirts describes the outer edge of a city or town, farthest from the center but still technically part of that place. If you had a city map, you could draw a line on all sides where crowded streets filled with apartment buildings and businesses begin to give way to single-family houses and country roads. You might not get a perfect circle but you will see that outskirts are those border places between the city and the little towns that surround it.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing outskirts

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.

Outskirts Press, which published the book, issued a statement saying it had asked Amazon to remove the book from its website.

From US News • Feb. 23, 2016

"Outskirts Press apologizes to the families of the victims for any additional heartache this may have caused," the statement said.

From US News • Feb. 23, 2016

"Out on the Outskirts of Town," a drama by William Inge starring Anne Bancroft and Jack Warden.

From Time Magazine Archive

And always there was time to write his own songs: Partnership Woman, House Rent Stomp, Outskirts of Town.

From Time Magazine Archive

Outskirts of London were being traversed; but neither driving sheets of rain against which human vision failed, nor the chance of encountering belated traffic, worked any slackening of the pace.

From Red Masquerade by Vance, Louis Joseph

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Look it up. Learn it forever.

Remember "outskirts" for good with VocabTrainer. Expand your vocabulary effortlessly with personalized learning tools that adapt to your goals.

Take me to Vocabulary.com