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
Farmers once proud of living and working their ancestral land were driven into poverty and forced into shantytowns.
—
Nik Kowsar, Time, 2 Oct. 2025
These new shantytowns are plagued with substance abuse, violence and prostitution.
—Chicago Tribune, 17 Aug. 2025
In 2011, federal agents raided the shantytown and made dozens of arrests.
—Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 11 Aug. 2025
Long vilified as breeding grounds for drugs, disease, and crime, the shantytowns are easy targets for forcible, and often violent, evictions and brutal policing.
—Sheila S. Coronel, Foreign Affairs, 12 Aug. 2019
See All Example Sentences for shantytown
Nik Kowsar, Time, 2 Oct. 2025
These new shantytowns are plagued with substance abuse, violence and prostitution.
—Chicago Tribune, 17 Aug. 2025
In 2011, federal agents raided the shantytown and made dozens of arrests.
—Adam Sabes, FOXNews.com, 11 Aug. 2025
Long vilified as breeding grounds for drugs, disease, and crime, the shantytowns are easy targets for forcible, and often violent, evictions and brutal policing.
—Sheila S. Coronel, Foreign Affairs, 12 Aug. 2019
See All Example Sentences for shantytown
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shantytown
Noun
-
Costa Rica has stunning resorts that combine jungle luxury with beach views.—
Maya Kachroo-Levine,
Travel + Leisure,
13 Jan. 2026
-
Indeed, the diverse lush tones joined forces with the suffocating heat of the jungle to disguise an essential monotony, the primary function of which was to drive crazy anyone who might be inclined to formulate an original thought.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Now a community organizer and member of an anti-violence collective who works in the favela, Medeiros is no stranger to how the Red Command instills fear in its territories.—
Alessandra Freitas,
CNN Money,
9 Nov. 2025
-
So does the bass-heavy genre baile funk, which emerged out of the city’s favelas before going global in the early 2000s.—
Carolina Abbott Galvão,
Travel + Leisure,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Located about a mile from this week’s campaign stop, the park once housed San Jose’s largest encampment and has been the site of multiple fires and a fatal stabbing in recent years.—
Grace Hase,
Mercury News,
21 Jan. 2026
-
The effort also will target high-risk encampments along the South Dallas transportation route for the FIFA World Cup, according to county officials, drawing hundreds of thousands of international soccer fans this summer.—
Tracey McManus,
Dallas Morning News,
21 Jan. 2026
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 22 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
