Suburb

How to spell suburb

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce suburb

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does suburb mean?

1. nounA residential district lying on the outer edge of a city or large town.

Suburb in a sentence

• They moved out of the flat and bought a house in a quiet suburb.

• The train carries commuters from the suburb into the office every morning.

Where does suburb come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin suburbium, a compound built from sub, meaning 'near' or 'just below', and urbs, meaning 'city'. The literal sense was therefore 'the area lying just outside the city walls', the fringe of settlement that grew up beyond the urban centre. English took the word in during the 1300s, often through Anglo-French forms such as suburbe, and at first it carried a faintly disreputable air, since the land outside the walls was where less respectable trades and people were pushed. Over the centuries, and especially with the growth of railways and commuting, the meaning shifted to the comfortable residential districts that ring a city today. The same urbs root still sits inside everyday words like 'urban' and 'urbane', which is a handy reminder that the tricky middle of suburb is spelled with the same 'urb'.

How the word is built

• sub- (near, under)
• urb (city, from Latin urbs)