suburb
Americannoun
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suburbs
plural
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a district lying immediately outside a city or town, especially a smaller residential community.
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the suburbs, the area composed of such districts.
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an outlying part.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of suburb
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin suburbium, from sub- sub- + urb(s) “city” + -ium -ium
Explanation
A suburb is a residential district located on the outskirts of a city. If you live in the suburbs, you probably travel to the city for work. Suburb comes from Latin: sub means "below or near" and urbis means "city." You also will recognize this root in urban. Suburbs have more single-family homes than apartment buildings, and living there, you are more likely to have a yard with trees and grass. The downside is, if you work in the city, you might have a long commute that adds to the time you are away from your family.
Vocabulary lists containing suburb
Latin Root "sub" Words
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"The Civil Rights Movement"
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The United States
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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.
See Examples For:
The influx of investment and dedicated citizenry has helped the San Gabriel Valley suburb flourish economically and culturally, earning it the nickname the “Chinese Beverly Hills.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
For instance, one single-family home in Ladue, an affluent suburb of St. Louis, is currently listed for $6.1 million, and another custom home is listed for about $3.8 million.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
The H5N1 vaccination program, which also covers a popular little penguin population at a breakwater in the Melbourne beach suburb of St Kilda, is a challenge, he said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
People have been invited to "pay their respects" by lining roads in Newton and Mumbles, a seaside suburb of Swansea, while others began gathering outside her home in the morning.
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
On a cool late-summer evening in an oceanside suburb of Los Angeles, Shin stood in front of a small audience of Korean American teenagers.
From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden
“You go to these beautiful old cities — then you go outside in the suburbs, and it’s like, ‘Oh no, this just looks like a cuter version of Californian suburbs.’”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Mark SooHoo, a father of three who lives in the suburbs of Chicago, says social media and smartphones go hand-in-hand, and that both are harmful to young people.
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
With big homes that can hold lots of kids, “the suburbs are like the physical manifestation of that.”
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
Homes in suburbs adjacent to elite private schools often sell for more, she said, based on her experience.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 22, 2026
Out my window, I watch us rise higher and higher above Jackson; over the coliseum with its big top, the skyscrapers, the governor’s mansion, and churches downtown; the busy interstate, the sleepy suburbs.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
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.
