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The Suburbs vs. the Urbs
Given that most of the common words in our language beginning sub- tend to have meanings concerned with “beneath” (as in subterranean and submarine) or “less than” (as with subpar), you would be forgiven for assuming that the suburbs were so named because of their location below, or their status as less than, their urban counterparts. Not so, however: sub- may have other meanings at the beginning of a word; in this case, it indicates not depth or inferiority, but proximity. In other words, the suburbs are a region close to the urbs.
Is urbs an English word? Yes; it is rarely used, but it refers typically to a city, particularly when distinguished from a suburb.
Examples of suburb in a Sentence
Julia Hobsbawm, Fortune, 22 Apr. 2024
DeWitt is a suburb of Lansing and is about a 115-mile drive northwest of Detroit.
—Mike Stunson, Kansas City Star, 22 Apr. 2024
In a first-of-its-kind deal, the company recently sold the water rights tied to the land to the town of Queen Creek, a suburb of Phoenix, for a $14 million gross profit.
—Maanvi Singh, WIRED, 20 Apr. 2024
Elk Grove, a booming economy and suburb of Sacramento, initially disregarded the cannabis industry, outlawing dispensaries in the city limits in 2017 after recreational use was legalized by California’s Prop. 64 in 2016.
—Marcus D. Smith, Sacramento Bee, 19 Apr. 2024
Filming kicked off on April 8 in Paris and suburbs, and will wrap on Jun 20.
—Patrick Frater, Variety, 17 Apr. 2024
Golf ball-sized hail struck the Washington, D.C., suburbs and winds nearing 70 mph toppled trees in Virginia.
—Max Golembo, ABC News, 16 Apr. 2024
Despite our fears, and a growing number of coyotes in cities and suburbs, coyote attacks are extremely rare in the United States.
—Lily Carey, Discover Magazine, 15 Apr. 2024
The attack happened at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, a suburb in southwest Sydney, during a Mass that was being livestreamed.
—Stephen Sorace, Fox News, 15 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'suburb.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near suburb
Cite this Entry
“Suburb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suburb. Accessed 26 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
suburb
noun
Middle English suburb "part around the outer edge of a city," from early French (same meaning), from Latin suburbium (same meaning), from sub "under, close to" and urbs "city"
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