slum

American  

[sluhm] / slʌm /

noun

1. Often slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.

2. any squalid, run-down place to live.

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verb (used without object)

slummed, slumming

1. to visit slums, especially from curiosity.

2. to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status.

slum British  

/ slʌm /

noun

1. a squalid overcrowded house, etc

2. (often plural) a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding

3. (modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of slums

   slum conditions

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verb

1. to visit slums, esp for curiosity

2. Also: slum it.  to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed

Other Word Forms

• deslum
  verb (used with object)
• slummer
  noun
• slummy
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of slum

1805–15; compare earlier argot slum room; origin obscure

Explanation

A slum is a poor area of a big city. A slum is usually overcrowded and dirty, a discouraging place to live. Some of a city's neighborhoods are fancy and full of wealthy people, while others are slums (and most are somewhere in between). In a slum, most people are poor. The living conditions are inferior in a slum, which may not have the stores, restaurants, and health services its residents want or need. In the early 1800's, the term was back slum, which meant "back alley" or "street of poor people," and was eventually shortened to simply slum.

Example Sentences

Or that the public housing she championed would itself deteriorate so badly that, by 1990, the federal government would label much of it as “severely distressed”—and demolish it for having become a latter-day slum.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 24, 2026

Hussain Ahmed, 20, whose family lives in Machhar Colony, one of Karachi's largest slum areas where most of the population is comprised of Bengalis, does not have Pakistani nationality or an identity card.

From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026

She learnt that the child lived in a slum and could not afford to go to school.

From BBC • Feb. 18, 2026

His mother Margaret Nalunkuuma, a nurse, was the main breadwinner and raised him on the land she bought in the Kamwokya slum.

From BBC • Jan. 10, 2026

Although the township did boast some handsome buildings, it could fairly be described as a slum, living testimony to the neglect of the authorities.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Related Words

• rookery