theme parking

noun

The transformation into something resembling a theme park.

Meanings

nountheme parking (uncountable)

alternative theme-parking

  1. derogatoryuncountableurban studiesThe transformation into something resembling a theme park.

    “Theme parking” is also an accusation leveled against many recent urban development schemes as well as the creation of new private public spaces (such as malls).

    2005, “theme parks”, in Robert Gregg, Gary W. McDonogh, Cindy H. Wong, editors, Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture, Routledge, →ISBN, page 722
    2 more examples

    But Broadway's economic survival would be a Pyrrhic victory of sorts if artistic invention is slowly leached out in an attempt to make the Great White Way a New York outpost of the theme park–ing of America.

    2004, Steven Adler, On Broadway: Art and Commerce on the Great White Way, SIU Press, →ISBN, page 28

    Architecture and urban design can also function as critical artistic practices that allow us to capture something more elusive than what is represented by notions such as the theme-parking of cities.

    2006, Eric Kluitenberg, Hybrid Space: How Wireless Media Mobilize Public Space, Nai010 Publishers, →ISBN

    Synonyms: Disneylandification

Synonyms & antonyms

nounThe transformation into something resembling a theme park.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

theme parking. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/theme%20parking

MLA

“theme parking.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/theme%20parking. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “theme parking,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/theme%20parking.

Source: theme parking on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.