urbanism

American

[ur-buh-niz-uhm] / ˈɜr bəˌnɪz əm /

noun

the way of life of people who live in a large city.
urbanization.
city planning.

urbanism British

/ ˈɜːbəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. the character of city life
2. the study of this
a less common term for urbanization See urbanization

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of urbanism

1885–90; urban + -ism, modeled on French urbanisme

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:

urbanism

Throughout the run of the project, select performances will be followed by conversations on urbanism and environmental change.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

"These factors promoted the coevolution of urbanism, systemic inequality and patron-client relationships in cities."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 26, 2025

Reconstruction is likely to be a slow, painstaking process, one that Shelly Culbertson calls "incremental urbanism".

From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025

Here is Calder’s own family tree, expressed in terms of monumental urbanism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2025

Feudalism co-existed and then supplanted urbanism and the big estates became so autonomous that they ignored the Byzantine court altogether.

From After the Rain : how the West lost the East by Samuel Vaknin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023