as in jungle
a usually poor town or a part of a town where the people live in shanties
Related Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of shantytown
Born in December 1963, the fifth of seven siblings, Lee grew up in Seongnam, a city near the southeastern edge of Seoul that, by the time his family settled there in 1976, was known as a neighborhood for those who had been evicted from the capital’s shantytowns.
—
Max Kim, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2025
At the same time, authorities in the Spanish capital are dismantling Toni’s neighborhood, a sort of makeshift shantytown no longer commonplace — or deemed right and proper — in wealthy western Europe.
—Adam Solomons, IndieWire, 19 May 2025
On a trip from Cape Town to Pretoria, a reporter grapples with the whiplash of traveling through South Africa’s two worlds, from majestic mountains to struggling shantytowns.
—Lee-Ann Olwage, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2025
In Lebanon, where there are no official camps for refugees, over a million Syrians reside in informal settlements and shantytowns.
—Sonia Shah, Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2015
See All Example Sentences for shantytown
Max Kim, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2025
At the same time, authorities in the Spanish capital are dismantling Toni’s neighborhood, a sort of makeshift shantytown no longer commonplace — or deemed right and proper — in wealthy western Europe.
—Adam Solomons, IndieWire, 19 May 2025
On a trip from Cape Town to Pretoria, a reporter grapples with the whiplash of traveling through South Africa’s two worlds, from majestic mountains to struggling shantytowns.
—Lee-Ann Olwage, New York Times, 25 Mar. 2025
In Lebanon, where there are no official camps for refugees, over a million Syrians reside in informal settlements and shantytowns.
—Sonia Shah, Foreign Affairs, 10 Nov. 2015
See All Example Sentences for shantytown
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shantytown
Noun
-
According to Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich, Hitler was agitated by Owens’s four-gold-medal performance, and declared that Black athletes were jungle primitives who should be excluded from future competitions.—
Sally Jenkins,
The Atlantic,
27 Oct. 2025
-
During the brutal days of filming, Sheen, then in his mid-30s, had a near-fatal heart attack while in the middle of the jungle.—
Angela Andaloro,
PEOPLE,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Shampoo grew up in Vila do Ipsep, a favela in Recife.—
Jack Lang,
New York Times,
11 Oct. 2025
-
Children play with a ball in front of a mural depicting the Brazilian World Cup football team at the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro on November 23, 2022.—
Micah McCartney,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Lawmakers and students who testified at the hearing also focused on pro-Palestine encampments at the University of Wisconsin campuses in spring 2024.—
Laura Schulte,
jsonline.com,
22 Oct. 2025
-
As a result, violent crime has fallen to levels not seen since the 1950s, tent encampments are at record lows, and for the first time in years, San Franciscans believe our city is moving in the right direction.—
Khaleda Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Our lead, Joe Rance (Callum Turner), trudges to campus from a Hooverville; later, the coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), pokes around his crew’s lockers to count the holes in their shoes.—
Amy Nicholson,
New York Times,
24 Dec. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Shantytown.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shantytown. Accessed 29 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share