Meanings
comparative more suburban · superlative most suburban
- Relating to or characteristic of or situated on the outskirts of a city; of or relating to suburbia or the suburbs.
a new electoral district embracing both suburban and urban areas
4 more examples
Suburban villas, highway-ſide retreats, / That dread th' encroachment of our growing ſtreets, / Tight boxes, neatly ſaſh'd, and in a blaze / With all a July ſun's collected rays, / Delight the citizen, who gaſping there, / Breathes clouds of duſt and calls it country air.
1782, William Cowper, “Retirement”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 282Not only has suburban life separated the great concentrated masses of our people from their birthright of meadows, fields and woods; of Nature, in her untamed splendour and mystery, most of them have never had so much as a momentary glimpse.
1922, Eleanour Sinclair Rohde, The Old English Herbals, London: Longmans, Green and Co., page 13They form part of the vast electrification and reconstruction schemes which have been in hand for a number of years at Liverpool Street, and in suburban Essex, and include the rearrangement of tracks, of which the Ilford flyover forms part; the modern signal boxes, now needed only at key points; the electric control or sub-stations; and a large electric car shed.
1951 January, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Essex and Hertfordshire”, in Railway Magazine, page 44Tiffany Henyard’s tumultuous tenure as mayor of south suburban Dolton is coming to an end, and voters were very clear about ousting her.
2025 February 25, Gabriel Castillo, Jenna Barnes, Ben Bradley, Michael Johnson, Erik Runge, “Defeated in Dolton: Trustee Jason House beats incumbent Mayor Tiffany Henyard by landslide in primary”, in WGN-TV, archived from the original on 27 Feb 2025
plural suburbans
- A person who lives in a suburb.
- An automobile with a station wagon body on a truck chassis.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Latinsuburbanus
- Englishsuburban
From Latin suburbanus, from prefix sub- (“under”) + urbs (“city”) + -anus (“adjective suffix”), equivalent to sub- + urban.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian от предградията
- от предградията (ot predgradijata)relating to outskirts of a city
Catalan suburbà
- suburbàrelating to outskirts of a city
Chinese Mandarin 郊區的 /郊区的, 市郊的
- 郊區的 /郊区的 (jiāoqū de)relating to outskirts of a city
- 市郊的 (shìjiāo de)relating to outskirts of a city
Czech předměstský
- předměstskýrelating to outskirts of a city
Dutch voorstedelijk
- voorstedelijkrelating to outskirts of a city
Esperanto suburba
- suburbarelating to outskirts of a city
Finnish esikaupunki-, lähiö-
- esikaupunki-relating to outskirts of a city
- lähiö-relating to outskirts of a city
French suburbain, banlieusard
- suburbainrelating to outskirts of a city
- banlieusardrelating to outskirts of a city
German vorstädtisch, Vorort-
- vorstädtischrelating to outskirts of a city
- Vorort-relating to outskirts of a city
Greek προαστιακός
- προαστιακός (proastiakós)relating to outskirts of a city
Hungarian külvárosi
- külvárosirelating to outskirts of a city
Irish fo-uirbeach, bruachbhailteach
- fo-uirbeachrelating to outskirts of a city
- bruachbhailteachrelating to outskirts of a city
- fo-bhailteachrelating to outskirts of a city
Italian suburbano
- suburbanorelating to outskirts of a city
Japanese 郊外の
- 郊外の (kōgai no)relating to outskirts of a city
Korean 교외의
- 교외의 (gyooe'ui)relating to outskirts of a city
Latin suburbānus
- suburbānusrelating to outskirts of a city
Polish podmiejski
- podmiejskirelating to outskirts of a city
Portuguese suburbano
- suburbanorelating to outskirts of a city
Romanian suburban
- suburbanrelating to outskirts of a city
Russian при́городный, за́городный
- при́городный (prígorodnyj)relating to outskirts of a city
- за́городный (zágorodnyj)relating to outskirts of a city
Slovak predmestský
- predmestskýrelating to outskirts of a city
Spanish suburbano
- suburbanorelating to outskirts of a city
Swedish förorts-
- förorts-relating to outskirts of a city
Ukrainian приміськи́й, передміськи́й
- приміськи́й (prymisʹkýj)relating to outskirts of a city
- передміськи́й (peredmisʹkýj)relating to outskirts of a city
- підміськи́й (pidmisʹkýj)relating to outskirts of a city
Vietnamese ngoại ô
- ngoại ôrelating to outskirts of a city
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with suburban
All rhymes →Cite this entry
suburban. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/suburban
“suburban.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/suburban. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “suburban,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/suburban.
Source: suburban on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.