urban
Forms
- Comparative
- more urban
- Superlative
- most urban
Definitions
1.Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place, especially when contrasted with the countryside.
- Parkour – often referred to as freerunning – entails creatively moving through an urban environment: flipping, jumping and vaulting across various obstacles.
2.Living in a city or town.
- Shopping malls are quickly mushrooming in this very urban city.
3.Having authority or jurisdiction over a city or town.
- Shopping malls are quickly mushrooming in this very urban city.
4.Of an inhabitant or resident: black; African-American.(offensive)
- Shopping malls are quickly mushrooming in this very urban city.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1960
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Common
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Antonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”) + English -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Urbānus is derived from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives).