noun · 3 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:/səˈbɜːbi.ə/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
General-American:/səˈbɝbi.ə/
CMU ARPABET:S AH0 B ER1 B IY0 AH0
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
The suburbs as a whole and all that characterizes or pertains to them; (sometimes derogatory) the suburbs as encapsulated or represented by the typical characteristics or qualities of the people living there, especially complacency, conformity, conservativeness, dullness, etc.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
suburbanites considered as a cultural class or subculture
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: subculture
3
noun
Meaning 3
a residential district located on the outskirts of a city
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: suburb, suburban area
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: residential district, residential area, community
Narrower terms: addition, bedroom community, faubourg, stockbroker belt, Wimbledon, Clichy, Clichy-la-Garenne, Orly, Sun City
History
Etymology
PIE word *upó From suburb + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns, the names of collections of things, etc.), perhaps modelled after Latin suburbia (“suburbs”), the plural of suburbium.
Across languages
Translations
2 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Finnish:
esikaupunkialue
— suburbs as a whole and all that characterizes or pertains to them; the suburbs as encapsulated or represented by the typical characteristics or qualities of the people living there
Manx:
fo-valjyn
— suburbs as a whole and all that characterizes or pertains to them; the suburbs as encapsulated or represented by the typical characteristics or qualities of the people living there
