suburb
noun
Simple meaning
A residential district located on the outskirts of a city.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
suhberbSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsʌbɚb
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A residential district located on the outskirts of a city
by extension
The outer part; the environment.
AustraliaIrelandNew ZealandUK
Any subdivision of a conurbation, not necessarily on the periphery.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A residential district located on the outskirts of a city
Used this way, suburb is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use suburb
- “We live in a quiet suburb just outside the bustling city center.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Relating to or characteristic of or situated in suburbs.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: residential district located on the outskirts of a city
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.