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The Suburbs vs. the Urbs
Given that most of the common words in our language beginning sub- tend to have meanings concerned with “beneath” (as in subterranean and submarine) or “less than” (as with subpar), you would be forgiven for assuming that the suburbs were so named because of their location below, or their status as less than, their urban counterparts. Not so, however: sub- may have other meanings at the beginning of a word; in this case, it indicates not depth or inferiority, but proximity. In other words, the suburbs are a region close to the urbs.
Is urbs an English word? Yes; it is rarely used, but it refers typically to a city, particularly when distinguished from a suburb.
Examples of suburb in a Sentence
Erin Moriarty, CBS News, 6 Apr. 2024
Frederick, the Twin Cities restaurateur, is a few weeks away from opening his newest restaurant, Starling, in Edina, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis.
—Abha Bhattarai, Washington Post, 5 Apr. 2024
Her mom, unemployed and clinically stressed science journalist Fanny (Paprika Steen), looks set to be shipped out like most Danes to a more challenging destination such as a shabby high-rise suburb of Bucharest with eight people per apartment and a dormitory bedroom.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 5 Apr. 2024
The Brightline West project is in progress to connect a suburb of Los Angeles to Sin City, aiming to reduce traffic and environmental impact.
—James Powel, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024
But last May, voters in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe rejected a proposal for a $2.3 billion entertainment district that would have included a new arena for the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes.
—David A. Lieb, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Apr. 2024
YouTube Local law enforcement officials told the Dallas Morning News that the Corvette is believed to be registered or leased to Rice, who grew up in a suburb in Dallas.
—Bill Chappell, NPR, 3 Apr. 2024
In March, one of Mr. Navalny’s chief aides, Leonid Volkov, was hospitalized after being beaten by unidentified men with a hammer outside his home in a Vilnius suburb.
—Tomas Dapkus, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2024
This caravan is getting ready to take to the streets of Sacramento and its sprawling suburbs — a rally on wheels to get out the vote ahead of Sunday's referendum.
—Sandhya Dirks, NPR, 30 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'suburb.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near suburb
Cite this Entry
“Suburb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suburb. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
suburb
noun
Middle English suburb "part around the outer edge of a city," from early French (same meaning), from Latin suburbium (same meaning), from sub "under, close to" and urbs "city"
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