as in jungle
a usually poor town or a part of a town where the people live in shanties
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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
The demonstration lasted six weeks, with some participants setting up a shantytown known as Resurrection City.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 12 May 2025
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
The demonstration lasted six weeks, with some participants setting up a shantytown known as Resurrection City.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 12 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for shantytown
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shantytown
Noun
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Around the time of Hollywood glam explosion, Brooke Wall began to pursue jobs in the hairstyling jungle of New York.—
Merle Ginsberg,
HollywoodReporter,
10 Apr. 2026
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Such stories play upon our own imaginings; anyone who’s run a toy car across the landscape of a floor, or pretended a planter was a jungle, or made a mountain out of a mound, or projected themselves into a model train layout — indeed, a scene here — will relate.—
Television Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Brazilian police seized a record 48 tons of marijuana in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, uncovered by chance by a sniffer dog during a regular operation against criminal factions.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
8 Apr. 2026
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Official samba schools began forming in the 1930s, bringing the (previously criminalised) dance into the mainstream and celebrating an art form produced by Rio’s favela communities (Afro-Brazilian heritage is still at the heart).—
Laura French,
TheWeek,
18 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The new policy changes that, allowing the city to clear vehicles and encampments more quickly in what officials describe as high-sensitivity areas, including places near schools, businesses, and homes.—
Kenny Choi,
CBS News,
15 Apr. 2026
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But a 2021 set at a notorious homeless encampment in Oakland earned backlash from advocates, who said the band was taking advantage of desperate people to throw aesthetically nihilistic punk shows.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
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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 23 Apr. 2026.
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