as in favelas
a usually poor town or a part of a town where the people live in shanties
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Recent Examples of shantytowns
In the brightly billboarded carcass of a West Coast city, private security shields the corporate enclaves of a tech élite from the shantytowns of the economically superfluous.
—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
Their target was the Comando Vermelho (CV), or Red Command, a criminal organization that has ruled these hillside shantytowns for decades.
—Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
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
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
Their target was the Comando Vermelho (CV), or Red Command, a criminal organization that has ruled these hillside shantytowns for decades.
—Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shantytowns
Noun
-
Jungle The tropical world is full of jungles, but the word jungle itself is from Sanskrit, jaṅgala (through Hindi jaṅgal), meaning a desert or wasteland area.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
31 Mar. 2026
-
American soldiers sprayed Agent Orange over the jungles of Vietnam and nearby countries from the air and from the ground, often mixing it with kerosene or fuel, another carcinogen, to help disperse it.—
Angus Chen,
STAT,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Sanitation trucks roll up to encampments.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 Apr. 2026
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Over the past three years, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County have been successful in clearing several large homeless encampments and providing shelter and housing to those who lived in them.—
Andy Sheehan,
CBS News,
2 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Shantytowns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shantytowns. Accessed 17 Apr. 2026.
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