suburb

[suhb-urb]

noun

1. a district lying immediately outside a city or town, especially a smaller residential community.

2. the suburbs, the area composed of such districts.

3. an outlying part.

suburb

/ ˈsʌbɜːb /

noun

1. a residential district situated on the outskirts of a city or town

Other Word Forms

• suburbed adjective
• unsuburbed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of suburb¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin suburbium, from sub- sub- + urb(s) “city” + -ium -ium

Word History and Origins

Origin of suburb¹

C14: from Latin suburbium, from sub- close to + urbs a city

Example Sentences

A further 79 people have been injured in the city's deadliest blaze in more than 70 years, which occurred in the northerly suburb of Tai Po, while dozens remain missing.

Read more on BBC

In 1971, he moved his family to the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove, where his home was adjacent to a runway and he had a hangar to store his planes.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He was detained in the town of Laval, in western France, though he is from Aubervilliers, the Paris suburb that was home to the other suspected thieves.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

For more than 30 years after opening, the Huntington held the best art collection in the L.A. suburbs.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

While there are some fully off-grid dwellers, ranging from high-end desert oases and North Coast communes to the famous counterculture settlement of Imperial County’s “Slab City,” an off-grid suburb is one of a kind.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• countryside 
• environs 
• hinterland 
• outpost 
• outskirts 
• suburbia 
• village