Suburb

//ˈsʌbɝb// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A residential area located on the outskirts of a city or large town that usually includes businesses that cater to its residents; such as schools, grocery stores, shopping centers, restaurants, convenience stores, etc.

    "And the Lord spake vnto Moses in the plaines of Moab by Iordane, neere Iericho, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they giue vnto the Leuites of the inheritance of their possession, cities to dwell in: and yee shall giue also vnto the Leuites suburbs for the cities round about them."

  2. 2
    a residential district located on the outskirts of a city wordnet
  3. 3
    The outer part; the environment. broadly

    "the suburbs […] of sorrow"

  4. 4
    Any subdivision of a conurbation, not necessarily on the periphery. Australia, Ireland, New-Zealand, UK

Synonyms

All synonyms
banlieueboom townboroughbourgburgburgh

Example

More examples

"Helen and Kathy rented an apartment in a suburb of Tokyo."

Etymology

From Old French suburbe, subburbe, from Latin suburbium (from sub- (“under-”) + urbs (“city”)). Displaced native Old English underburg (literally “underborough”).

Related phrases

Garden Suburbbedroom suburbconvenience storegrocery storeshopping center

More for "suburb"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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