US /ˈɜɹbən/ UK /ˈɜːb(ə)n/
adj name Freq #7287

Meanings

  1. 1
    adj

    Relating to or located in a city or town.

    More and more people are moving to urban areas for work.

  2. 2
    adj

    Relating to modern Black popular culture, especially in music.

    The radio station plays mostly urban music.

Thesaurus

Opposites
bucolicnonurbanrural
Word family
Derived forms antiurbancyburbanexurbinterurbanintraurbanperi-urbanpreurbanrurbansemiurbansynurbanunurbanurban-renew
Related forms urbanus

Common collocations

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 p…

View etymology graph ->

Topics

markdown

Send feedback

Optional — only if you'd like a reply.