tent city
noun
plural tent cities
: a collection of many tents set up in an area to provide usually temporary shelter (as for people who don't have a permanent place of residence)
Tent cities of displaced homeowners have sprung up …—
Matt Woolsey
Matt WoolseyAnti-sweatshop protesters at FSU pitched a tent city last March to demand that the school join the Workers Rights Consortium …—Meline Toumani et al.
Meline Toumani et al.Examples of tent city in a Sentence
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The menacing tent cities and the over-the-top drug use on city streets are gone.
—Jim Cramer, CNBC, 19 Oct. 2025
Michael Schill, then president of Northwestern, was berated by congressional Republicans for brokering a compromise with pro-Palestinian protesters last year, disbanding their tent cities while preserving free speech.
—James Druckman, Mercury News, 17 Oct. 2025
Al-Mawasi, once a green patch of land north of Rafah, has expanded into a crowded tent city housing hundreds of thousands of refugees in ever-shrinking spaces, but lacking basic infrastructure such as shelter, water and sewage systems.
—Freddie Clayton, NBC news, 7 Oct. 2025
The last woman to leave the camps, a 33-year-old named Margarita Uría Rodríguez, departed carrying an image of la Caridad del Cobre, the Virgin of Charity and Cuba’s patron saint, which had kept watch over the refugee tent city called Camp Bravo.
—Miriam Pensack, The Dial, 30 Sep. 2025
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Jim Cramer, CNBC, 19 Oct. 2025
Michael Schill, then president of Northwestern, was berated by congressional Republicans for brokering a compromise with pro-Palestinian protesters last year, disbanding their tent cities while preserving free speech.
—James Druckman, Mercury News, 17 Oct. 2025
Al-Mawasi, once a green patch of land north of Rafah, has expanded into a crowded tent city housing hundreds of thousands of refugees in ever-shrinking spaces, but lacking basic infrastructure such as shelter, water and sewage systems.
—Freddie Clayton, NBC news, 7 Oct. 2025
The last woman to leave the camps, a 33-year-old named Margarita Uría Rodríguez, departed carrying an image of la Caridad del Cobre, the Virgin of Charity and Cuba’s patron saint, which had kept watch over the refugee tent city called Camp Bravo.
—Miriam Pensack, The Dial, 30 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for tent city
Cite this Entry
“Tent city.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tent%20city. Accessed 22 Oct. 2025.
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