suburban
Americanadjective
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pertaining to, inhabiting, or being in a suburb or the suburbs of a city or town.
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characteristic of a suburb or suburbs.
noun
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a suburbanite.
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a short overcoat for casual wear.
adjective
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of, relating to, situated in, or inhabiting a suburb or the suburbs
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characteristic of or typifying a suburb or the suburbs
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pejorative narrow or unadventurous in outlook
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of suburban
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin suburbānus “located close to a city (especially to Rome),” equivalent to sub- + urb- (stem of urbs “city”) + -ānus adjective suffix; see origin at sub-, urban
Explanation
Suburban refers to areas just beyond a city’s border. Your parents might have grown up in the city and then moved to a more suburban area after they had kids. If you see a lot of malls, plus houses that all look the same, and you're just outside a city, then you're in a suburban area: the suburbs. If you're from the suburbs, the chaos of New York City might be shocking. Suburban areas aren't as busy as urban (city) areas, but there's a lot more going on than in rural areas — farmland. One difference between suburban and urban areas is the urban areas have more cabs and public transportation.
Vocabulary lists containing suburban
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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.
The suburban malaise subgenre of murder mystery is thriving, from “Big Little Lies” to “All Her Fault.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 8, 2026
One potential snag: companies want to put driverless taxis in highly profitable, densely populated urban areas; many politicians want them in suburban and rural areas, to compensate for public-transport gaps.
From Barron's • Jun. 7, 2026
One of them, a 69-year-old retired pharmaceutical microbiologist from Maryland named Robert Gerber, told me he once sold Florsheims at a suburban mall while attending college at Drexel University.
From Slate • Jun. 5, 2026
Every morning, before the city has fully woken up, men in white caps and shirts arrive at Mumbai's suburban railway stations on bicycles stacked high with lunchboxes.
From BBC • May 29, 2026
She had been brought up a Southern Baptist in suburban Baton Rouge with dreams of leaving home—she did so just after high school—and running a daycare center.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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.
