outskirts
Britishplural noun
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.
Vocabulary lists containing outskirts
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Unit 1: Telling Details
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Walk Two Moons
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
Visitors with plenty to spend often head for the luxurious Ojai Valley Inn on the outskirts of town.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
But for the residents of Dol-llys Hall on the outskirts of Llanidloes, Powys, no windfall was necessary.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
Readers’ senses are engaged as Muratov pauses in one place or another, such as in the Campagna on the outskirts of Rome.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
However, that same day the Bosnian Serb army led by Mladic overruns Srebrenica, causing tens of thousands of refugees to flee to the Dutch force's compound at Potocari on the hilly town's outskirts.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
And so we arrived on the outskirts of a town on the outskirts of Rome called Mentana, at a place people called Hotel Barba.
From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri
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.
