basti

B3A1S1T1I1
/bʌstiː/

noun

A slum.

UncommonScrabble 7

Meanings

basti1

nounbasti (plural bastis)

plural bastis · alternative bustee

  1. IndiaNorthA slum.

    There is a dreary bustee in the neighbourhood which is said to make the most of any cholera that may be going.

    1891, Rudyard Kipling, The City Of Dreadful Night
    2 more examples

    With the population growth in the jhopadpattis, favelas, bastis and bidonvilles higher than any other environment in the world, we are seeing the emergence of Megaslums, where one million urban poor live in an area measuring just 1.5 square miles.

    2012, Sarwant Singh, New Mega Trends: Implications for Our Future Lives, page 63

    Her mother-in-law, in her half-delirious state, was sure that their basti would be broken down and had aggressively begun to push her sons to buy a plot of land elsewhere.

    2023, Radhika Iyengar, Fire on the Ganges, Fourth Estate, page 294

Basti2

proper noun

Origin

basti · noun

  1. Hindiबस्ती
  2. Hindiबस्ती
  3. Englishbasti

Borrowed from Hindi बस्ती (bastī, “settlement”).

Full word history & related roots →

Basti · proper noun

  1. Hindiबस्ती
  2. EnglishBasti

Borrowed from Hindi बस्ती (bastī).

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

basti. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/basti

MLA

“basti.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/basti. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “basti,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/basti.

Source: basti on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.