Suburbia
//səˈbɜː.bɪ.ə// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The suburbs as a whole and all that characterizes or pertains to them; (sometimes derogatory) the suburbs as encapsulated or represented by the typical characteristics or qualities of the people living there, especially complacency, conformity, conservativeness, dullness, etc. countable, uncountable
"The Germanic nations, in their invasions of Italy, introduced the appellation [borgo] into that country, where it was generally applied to the houses and streets built outside the gates of a walled town, corresponding to the Roman suburbia."
- 2 suburbanites considered as a cultural class or subculture wordnet
- 3 a residential district located on the outskirts of a city wordnet
Example
More examples"Nicolette loved living in suburbia: not too far from the city, but not too close, either."
Etymology
PIE word *upó From suburb + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns, the names of collections of things, etc.), perhaps modelled after Latin suburbia (“suburbs”), the plural of suburbium.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.