shtetl

American  

[shtet-l, shtey-tl] / ˈʃtɛt l, ˈʃteɪ tl /

noun

Yiddish.

plural

shtetlach,

plural

shtetls

1. (formerly) a Jewish village or small-town community in eastern Europe.

---

shtetl British  

/ ˈʃtetəl /

noun

1. (formerly) a small Jewish community in Eastern Europe

---

Etymology

Origin of shtetl

Yiddish, little town

Example Sentences

Michtom, who emigrated in 1888 from an impoverished shtetl in the Russian Pale of Settlement, noted that the czar “was never that humanitarian.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Luboml, formerly in Poland and now part of Ukraine, was one such a shtetl, to use the Yiddish word for town.

From The Wall Street Journal

But a time jump, moving from a shtetl during World War I to 1930s Warsaw, pushes the film into more unexpected territory, as it encompasses issues of immigration, adoption and assimilation.

From The Wall Street Journal

“So are all the shows set in a shtetl?”

From Literature

“It really was shtetl Carlton, back then,” said Arnold Zable, 76, a writer who captured the community and area in his book “Scraps of Heaven.”

From New York Times