shantytown

American  

[shan-tee-toun] / ˈʃæn tiˌtaʊn /

noun

1. a section, as of a city or town characterized by shanties and crudely built houses.

2. a whole town or city that is chiefly made up of shantylike houses.

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shantytown British  

/ ˈʃæntɪˌtaʊn /

noun

1. a town or section of a town or city inhabited by very poor people living in shanties, esp in a developing country

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Etymology

Origin of shantytown

First recorded in 1880–85; shanty ¹ + town

Example Sentences

In 1953, a fire destroyed a shantytown called Shek Kip Mei, leaving more than 53,000 people homeless.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025

Their shantytown, nestled in the middle-class neighbourhood of Jodhpur Park, thrummed with life.

From BBC • Dec. 16, 2024

Large, colorful prints of a Shanghai street or an Argentine shantytown are too crisp, artificially alienated.

From New York Times • Sep. 8, 2022

Before he lived in this small encampment of makeshift dwellings along active railroad tracks, Camargo spent about nine months in a shantytown under a stretch of the 105.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2022

He raised the hat in a gesture that took in the entire neighborhood, the ghetto with its shantytown porches, unpaved streets, and disconsolate laundry.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides