Favela

//fəˈvɛlə// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A slum or shantytown, especially in Brazil.

    "The favela is now the model for most of the world's cities, as vast numbers of people continue to migrate to them in order to survive."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
ghettoskid rowslum

Example

More examples

"A bus carrying journalists was attacked in Rio as it passed near the "City of God" favela."

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Brazilian Portuguese favela.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.