adj
Meaning 1
Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
ghetto
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɡɛ.təʊ/
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General-American: /ˈɡɛ.toʊ/
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General-American: [ˈɡɛɾoʊ̯]
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Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɛtəʊ
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CMU ARPABET: G EH1 T OW0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
adj
Meaning 2
Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal, slang
Examples
- My apartment's so ghetto, the rats and cockroaches filed a complaint with the city!
- I like to drive ghetto cars; if they break down you can just abandon them and pick up a new one!
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 3
Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, derogatory, informal, offensive, often
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Meaning 4
Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: barrio, bad part of town, estate, favela, ghetto, Hell's Kitchen, jects, projects, scheme, shantytown, sink estate, slum
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: derogatory, figuratively, sometimes
Examples
- 2016 January 10, Quentin Tarantino, 73rd Golden Globe Awards Ennio Morricone... is my favourite composer - and when I say favourite composer, I don't mean movie composer - that ghetto. I'm talking about Mozart, I'm talking about Beethoven, I'm talking about Schubert. That's who I'm talking about.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: ivory tower
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
a poor densely populated city district occupied by a minority ethnic group linked together by economic hardship and social restrictions
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: city district
noun
Meaning 11
formerly the restricted quarter of many European cities in which Jews were required to live
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- the Warsaw ghetto
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: quarter
noun
Meaning 12
any segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- the relative security of the gay ghetto
- no escape from the ghetto of the typing pool
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: life
History
Etymology
Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.
Across languages
Translations
87 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Portuguese: favelado — of low quality
- Spanish: poblacional — of low quality
- Spanish: flaite — of low quality
- Turkish: gettomsu — of low quality
- Turkish: pespaye — of low quality
- Turkish: külüstür — of low quality
- Arabic: نيئة — of or related to the residents of a US ghetto
- Arabic: بيئة — of or related to the residents of a US ghetto
- Turkish: gettomsu — of or related to the residents of a US ghetto
- Turkish: gettolu — raised in a US ghetto
- Arabic: غِيتُو (ḡītū) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Arabic: غِيتُو (getū) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Armenian: գետտո (getto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Belarusian: ге́та (hjéta) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Bulgarian: еврейски квартал (evrejski kvartal) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Catalan: gueto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Catalan: call — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Catalan: jueria — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Chinese Mandarin: 猶太人居住區 /犹太人居住区 (yóutàirén jūzhùqū) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Chinese Mandarin: 猶太區 /犹太区 (yóutài-qū) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Chinese Mandarin: 隔都 (gédōu) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Czech: ghetto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Danish: ghetto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Dutch: jodenbuurt — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Dutch: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Esperanto: geto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Finnish: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Finnish: ghetto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- French: ghetto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Georgian: გეტო (geṭo) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- German: Getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- German: Ghetto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- German: Judenviertel — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- German: Judengasse — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Greek: γκέτο (gkéto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Hebrew: גֶּטוֹ (geto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Hindi: बस्ती — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Hungarian: gettó — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Italian: ghetto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Japanese: ゲットー (gettō) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Korean: 게토 (geto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Norwegian Bokmål: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Norwegian Nynorsk: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Occitan: ghètto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Persian: گتو (geto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Polish: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Portuguese: gueto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Portuguese: judiaria — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Romanian: ghetou — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Russian: ге́тто (gétto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Serbo-Croatian: гето — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Serbo-Croatian: geto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Sicilian: judeca — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Spanish: gueto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Spanish: judería — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Spanish: aljama — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Swedish: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Turkish: getto — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Ukrainian: ге́тто (hétto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Yiddish: געטאָ (geto) — area of a city in which Jews were concentrated
- Bulgarian: гето (geto) — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Catalan: gueto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Chinese Mandarin: 隔都 (gédōu) — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Danish: ghetto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Dutch: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Dutch: ghetto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Finnish: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Georgian: გეტო (geṭo) — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- German: Getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- German: Ghetto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Greek: γκέτο (gkéto) — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Hungarian: gettó — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Italian: ghetto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Lithuanian: getas — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Norwegian Bokmål: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Norwegian Nynorsk: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Polish: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Portuguese: gueto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Romanian: ghetou — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Russian: ге́тто (gétto) — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Spanish: gueto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Spanish: aljama — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Spanish: morería — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Spanish: barriada — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Swedish: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- Turkish: getto — area of a city where people of an ethnic group are concentrated
- German: gettoisieren — to confine to a ghetto
Real reading context