shtetl
noun
(formerly) a Jewish village or small-town community in eastern Europe.
shtetls
-
pluralof shtetl.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
In the eastern European shtetls, and long before, Jewish families planned all week for their Friday Shabbat meal.
From Washington Post ● May 3, 2019
One is his upbringing as a son of Jewish immigrants from the shtetls of Ukraine and Poland, who sacrificed their own education to give their only child opportunities.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2013
A recent Jerusalem Post piece details one professor's attempt to show how modern humor flows directly from the mean, aggressive, sarcastic, bleak humor practiced by "badkhn" entertainers in the Jewish shtetls of 17th-century Eastern Europe.
From Slate ● Mar. 15, 2011
Both parents had come to America before the First World War from Jewish shtetls, or small towns, outside Warsaw.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 14, 1966
Narayan's imaginary Indian village of Malgudi and Isaac Bashevis Singer's Polish shtetls, Ha Jin's Dismount Fort teems with vivid life and people who grow ever less strange as their struggles unfold.
From Time Magazine Archive
