Urban

How to spell urban

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce urban

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does urban mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to, located in, or characteristic of a town or city.

Urban in a sentence

• The council approved a plan to reduce urban traffic in the city centre.

• Young professionals are drawn to the fast pace of urban life.

Where does urban come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces directly back to the Latin urbanus, meaning 'belonging to a city' or 'of the town', which was itself built on the noun urbs, the Latin word for a city or walled town. Interestingly, urbanus carried a social flavour as well as a geographical one: a city dweller was thought to be polished and witty, which is exactly why the related word 'urbane' came to mean smooth and sophisticated in manner. English adopted urban in the early seventeenth century, borrowing the Latin form fairly directly to describe anything connected with towns and cities. The contrast that anchors its modern meaning is with 'rural', from Latin rus meaning the countryside. The spelling stays close to its Latin parent, so remembering urbs (city) helps fix the single b and the -an ending.

How the word is built

• urb- (from Latin urbs: city)
• -an (adjective suffix: relating to)