gentrify
Americanverb (used with object)
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gentrifies,
present (3rd person singular)
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gentrified,
past participle, past
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gentrifying
present participle
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to alter (a deteriorated urban neighborhood) through the buying and renovation of houses and stores by upper- or middle-income families or individuals, raising property values but often displacing low-income families and small businesses.
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to conform to an upper- or middle-class lifestyle; make appealing to those with more affluent tastes.
Fish and chips have been gentrified.
verb (used without object)
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gentrifies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gentrified,
past participle, past
-
gentrifying
present participle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gentrifysimple
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gentrifiessimple
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have gentrifiedperfect
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has gentrifiedperfect
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am gentrifyingprogressive
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are gentrifyingprogressive
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is gentrifyingprogressive
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have been gentrifyingperfect progressive
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has been gentrifyingperfect progressive
Past
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gentrifiedsimple
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had gentrifiedperfect
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was gentrifyingprogressive
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were gentrifyingprogressive
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had been gentrifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gentrify
Explanation
To gentrify is to fix up a neighborhood so that wealthier people want to move there, with the unfortunate result that poor residents can't afford to live there anymore. This process often begins when middle-class people start buying and sprucing up homes in a poor neighborhood. Over time, more well-off people move in, along with hip coffee shops and fancy restaurants and shops — and house prices and rents go way up. It takes a while to gentrify a whole neighborhood, but eventually it becomes nearly impossible for lower-income people to stay. Gentrify is from gentry, or "nobility," and its root, which means "high-born."
Vocabulary lists containing gentrify
There Goes the Neighborhood
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Nigeria Jones
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Invisible Son
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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.
See Examples For:
The horizontal city is just too big to fully gentrify; there was always another neighborhood where an artist could find studio space, or a gallery could open up shop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2025
For the past several years, Lincoln Heights residents have opposed the project, for fear it would gentrify their mostly Latino and Asian working class neighborhood, and risk community exposure to contaminated soil.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2022
He has watched other parts of metropolitan Cincinnati, including the West End and Over-the-Rhine, gentrify in ways that displaced longtime Black residents.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2021
Mileyka Burgos-Flores said Plaza Seafood represents a part of the culture that is fading from the Allapattah neighborhood, which in recent years has started to gentrify.
From New York Times ● Jan. 11, 2021
He said the effort was a misguided attempt to gentrify blighted neighborhoods under the guise of fighting crime — a claim disputed by city leaders.
From Washington Post
As the neighborhood gentrifies and Chinese residents grow older and fewer, the clubs — called “tong,” “gungso” or “wui” in Cantonese — remain a vital social glue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2023
But as the area gentrifies — driven, in a major way, by the opening of SoFi Stadium — there’s concern that the city, as remembered through its classic rap lyrics, is disappearing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2022
“Usually when a neighborhood gentrifies, the new stores that open are mostly very expensive,” she said.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 2, 2017
Across the state border in Louisiana, New Orleans is facing similar problems as it develops and gentrifies.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 6, 2017
But as it gentrifies she realizes they are, in some ways, trapped.
From New York Times ● Mar. 19, 2017
It happened place by place, inch by inch, a dusty disco ball left in the rummage while a Starbucks or a boutique gym rose to serve the freshly gentrified block around it.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
The front MacPherson struts and rear multi-links have been upgraded and thoroughly gentrified.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
He grew up visiting relatives in San Miguel de Allende — a town now heavily gentrified by American immigrants — wishing to one day film a project on its cobblestone streets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2025
He is concerned that individuals buying homes for a $1 may lead to areas being gentrified, which results in general rent levels being “jacked up” and people on lower incomes being “pushed out”.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2024
This is the Mission District, a gentrified hotbed of sushi, tapas, hip Mexican restaurants, and upscale furniture stores.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Working-class Fishtown has been gentrifying, but a lot of old-timers have decided to stick around.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
The veteran lawmaker argues the elevated people mover — once touted as a marquee piece for the 2028 Olympic Games — won’t help those living in the working-class but gentrifying community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2024
The gentrifying Reagan years that followed gave rise to archly analytic work addressing institutional power.
From New York Times ● May 16, 2024
As I stood outside appraising it next to newer and much larger houses in the gentrifying neighborhood, a nagging question overwhelmed me: Is this really it?
From Slate ● Jan. 6, 2024
As developers began to eye the rapidly gentrifying neighborhood years ago for redevelopment, longtime community members became alarmed at the potential to accelerate the loss of the neighborhood’s Black population.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2023
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.
