shtetl
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of shtetl
Yiddish, little town
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.
My father was born in a shtetl outside Kyiv — didn’t speak Russian, spoke Yiddish.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 2, 2026
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 • Jan. 16, 2026
In later years, Jewish studies professors have been less kind, complaining that Harnick's lyrics and Joseph Stein's book sentimentally sanitized the shtetl and misrepresented both Judaism and eastern European life.
From Salon • Jul. 8, 2023
When Mr. Jaffee was 6, his mother threw their domestic life into turmoil by taking him and his three younger brothers back to her shtetl in Lithuania.
From New York Times • Apr. 10, 2023
I had tried using that name for a while, just another way to leave behind the shtetl.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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.
