Standard Lemma guide

rural

adj · noun · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɹʊəɹəl/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɹɔːɹəl/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /ˈɹɵːɹəl/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /ˈɹoːɹəl/
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈɹʊɹəl/
  • General-American: /ˈɹɝ.əl/
  • Scotland: /ˈɾʉɾəl/
  • Scotland: [ˈɾʉːɾəl]
  • Ireland: /ˈɹuːɹəl/
  • South-Asia: /ˈɾuːɾal/
  • South-Asia, nonstandard: /ˈɾuːa̯l/
  • rhymes with -ʊəɹəl
  • CMU ARPABET: R UH1 R AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Relating to the countryside or to agriculture.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: campestral, landly

Antonyms: urban, suburban

2

noun

Meaning 2

A person from the countryside; a rustic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective

Meaning 3

living in or characteristic of farming or country life

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • rural people
  • large rural households
  • unpaved rural roads
  • an economy that is basically rural

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: urban

4

adjective

Meaning 4

of or relating to the countryside as opposed to the city

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • rural electrification
  • rural free delivery

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Old French rural, from Latin rūrālis (“rural”), from rūs (“countryside”) + -ālis.

Across languages

Translations

94 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: fshatar — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Arabic: فَلَّاحِيّ (fallāḥiyy) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Arabic: قَرَوِيّ (qarawiyy) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Armenian: գյուղական (gyuġakan) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Azerbaijani: kənd — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Belarusian: се́льскі (sjélʹski) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Belarusian: вяско́вы (vjaskóvy) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Bengali: গ্রাম্য (grammo) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Bengali: গাঁইয়া (gãiẏa) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Bengali: গাঁওয়ালী (gãōẇali) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Bengali: গেরাইম্মা (geraimma) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Bulgarian: се́лски (sélski) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Catalan: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Chinese Mandarin: 農村的 /农村的 (nóngcūn de) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Chinese Mandarin: 鄉村的 /乡村的 (xiāngcūn de) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Czech: venkovský — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Czech: selský — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Danish: tyndtbefolket — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Danish: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Danish: landlig — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Danish: rustik — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Dutch: landelijk — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Esperanto: kampara — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Extremaduran: roal — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Finnish: maalaismainen — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Finnish: maalais- — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • French: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Galician: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Georgian: სოფლის (soplis) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • German: ländlich — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • German: dörflich — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Greek: αγροτικός (agrotikós) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Ancient Greek: ἄγροικος (ágroikos) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Hebrew: כַּפְרִי (kafrí) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Ido: rurala — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Indonesian: pedesaan — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Italian: rurale — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Japanese: 農村 (nōson) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Japanese: いなかの (inaka no) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Japanese: ルーラル (rūraru) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Kazakh: ауыл (auyl) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Kazakh: ауылдық (auyldyq) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Korean: 시골의 (sigorui) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Korean: 마을의 (ma'eurui) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Kyrgyz: айыл (ayıl) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Kyrgyz: селолук (seloluk) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Latin: rūrālis — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Latin: agrestis — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Lithuanian: kaimiškas — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Macedonian: селски (selski) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Macedonian: рурален (ruralen) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Malay: pedalaman — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Malayalam: ഗ്രാമീണ (grāmīṇa) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Māori: taiwhenua — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Norwegian Bokmål: landlig — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Norwegian Bokmål: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: landleg — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Old English: uplendisċ — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Persian: روستایی (rustâyi) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Polish: wiejski — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Polish: wioskowy — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Polish: sielski — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Portuguese: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Romanian: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Romanian: țărănesc — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Romanian: câmpenesc — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Russian: се́льский (sélʹskij) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Russian: дереве́нский (derevénskij) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Scots: landward — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Serbo-Croatian: сѐоскӣ — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Serbo-Croatian: ру̀ра̄лан — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Serbo-Croatian: sèoskī — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Serbo-Croatian: rùrālan — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Slovak: vidiecky — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Slovene: podeželski — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Slovene: ruralen — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Spanish: rural — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Tagalog: pangkabukiran — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Tagalog: kabukiranin — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Tagalog: probinsiya — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Tajik: қишлоқӣ (qišloqi) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Tajik: деҳотӣ (dehoti) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Tamil: நாட்டுப்புற (nāṭṭuppuṟa) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Telugu: గ్రామీణ (grāmīṇa) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Thai: ชนบท (chon-ná-bòt) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Turkish: kırsal — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Turkmen: oba — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Ukrainian: сільськи́й (silʹsʹkýj) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Uzbek: qishloq — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Vietnamese: nông thôn — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Welsh: gwledig — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Yiddish: דאָרפֿיש (dorfish) — pertaining to non-urban areas
  • Zazaki: gemeng — pertaining to non-urban areas
Real reading context

rural in complete knowledge articles