outskirts

out·skirts
O1U1T1S1K5I1R1T1S1
US/ˈaʊtskɝts/UK/ˈaʊtskɜːts/

noun

The area surrounding a city or town; suburb.

“He lived on the outskirts of Paris for a time.”

Less commonScrabble 13

Meanings

outskirts1

nounoutskirts pl (normally plural, singular outskirt)

singular outskirt

  1. pluralplural normallyThe area surrounding a city or town; suburb.

    He lived on the outskirts of Paris for a time.

    4 more examples

    The village borders on the Hakka district of Wanluan on the southeastern outskirts of Chaozhou, and its temple is modest in size, with a front and rear chamber and two larger temporary extensions front and side. Yet its members (unaware of similarly named temples in Pingdong as well as Donggang) insist that it is the City God of the county of Pingdong.

    2003, Donald S. Sutton, “Places: Nine Troupes in Their Local Settings”, in Steps of Perfection: Exorcistic Performers and Chinese Religion in Twentieth-Century Taiwan, Harvard University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 63

    There are faculty advisers on El’s theater crew who balk at using “they” for one person; classmates at El’s public school on the outskirts of Boston who insist El can’t be “multiple people”; and commenters on El’s social media feeds who dismiss nonbinary gender identities like androgyne (a combination of masculine and feminine), agender (the absence of gender) and gender-fluid (moving between genders) as lacking a basis in biology.

    2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2019

    More than 100 men, wearing white T-shirts and wielding sticks and clubs, stormed the station in Yuen Long, on Hong Kong’s northwestern outskirts, and assaulted people, including passengers on a subway car.

    2021 July 23, Vivian Wang, Joy Dong, Tiffany May, “Men Who Beat Hong Kong Protesters in Mob Attack Are Sentenced to Prison”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Jul 2021, Asia Pacific

    Viktor is monitoring the brigade’s area of responsibility by watching a livestream from a drone flying somewhere over the outskirts of Kostyantynivka on his smartphone.

    2025 December 8, Dmytro Durnev, “A voice from the kill zone : One Ukrainian sergeant tells Novaya Europe he is prepared to defend Donbas from Russian forces for as long as it takes”, in Novaya Gazeta Europe

outskirts2

noun
  1. pluralplural of outskirt
verb
  1. indicativepresentsingularthird personthird-person singular simple present indicative of outskirt

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*úd
  2. Proto-Germanic*ūt
  3. Proto-Germanic*ūt-
  4. Old Englishūt-
  5. Middle Englishut-
  6. Englishout-
  7. Englishskirts
  8. Englishoutskirts

From out- + skirts.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian покрайнина
  • покрайнина (pokrajnina)the edges or areas around a city or town
Catalan afores, extraradi
  • aforesthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • extraradithe edges or areas around a city or town
Chinese Mandarin 郊外, 郊區 /郊区
  • 郊外 (jiāowài)the edges or areas around a city or town
  • 郊區 /郊区 (jiāoqū)the edges or areas around a city or town
Finnish laitakaupunki, esikaupunki
  • laitakaupunkithe edges or areas around a city or town
  • esikaupunkithe edges or areas around a city or town
  • laitamatthe edges or areas around a city or town
French banlieue
  • banlieuethe edges or areas around a city or town
German Stadtrand
  • Stadtrandthe edges or areas around a city or town
Greek περίχωρα
  • περίχωρα (períchora)the edges or areas around a city or town
Hungarian külváros
  • külvárosthe edges or areas around a city or town
Irish ciumhais, imeachtar
  • ciumhaisthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • imeachtarthe edges or areas around a city or town
Italian periferia
  • periferiathe edges or areas around a city or town
Japanese 郊外, 町外れ
  • 郊外 (kōgai)the edges or areas around a city or town
  • 町外れ (machihazure)the edges or areas around a city or town
Korean 교외, 근교
  • 교외 (gyooe)the edges or areas around a city or town
  • 근교 (geun'gyo)the edges or areas around a city or town
Latvian nomale, priekšpilsēta
  • nomalethe edges or areas around a city or town
  • priekšpilsētathe edges or areas around a city or town
Persian حوالی
  • حوالی (havâli)the edges or areas around a city or town
Polish peryferie
  • peryferiethe edges or areas around a city or town
Portuguese periferia, arrabalde
  • periferiathe edges or areas around a city or town
  • arrabaldethe edges or areas around a city or town
  • subúrbiothe edges or areas around a city or town
  • arredoresthe edges or areas around a city or town
Russian окра́ина, предме́стья
  • окра́инаthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • предме́стья (predméstʹja)the edges or areas around a city or town
Spanish afueras, alrededores
  • afuerasthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • alrededoresthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • extrarradiothe edges or areas around a city or town
  • arrabalthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • periferiathe edges or areas around a city or town
  • aledañothe edges or areas around a city or town
  • aledañosthe edges or areas around a city or town
Swedish utkant, utkanter
  • utkantthe edges or areas around a city or town
  • utkanterthe edges or areas around a city or town
Welsh cyrion
  • cyrionthe edges or areas around a city or town
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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