slum
/slʌm/
slum noun: a dilapidated neighborhood where many people live in a state of poverty.
Noun (1)
slum (countable and uncountable, plural slums)
- A dilapidated neighborhood where many people live in a state of poverty.
- Go to the half built-upon slums behind Battlebridge […] you will find groups of boys […] squatting in the mud, among the rubbish, the broken bricks, the dust-heaps, and the fragments of timber […]1855, Charles Dickens, “Gambling”, in Household Words, volume 31
- I saw that most of those who were spending from eight to fifteen pounds monthly had the advantage of scholarships. I had before me examples of much simpler living. I came across a fair number of poor students living more humbly than I. One of them was staying in the slums in a room at two shillings...1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvi
- Inexpensive trinkets awarded as prizes in a carnival game.
- The lower the price of slum the better it is for the operator who can either give more of it out or build up the size of his big prizes. It is the big prizes that bring the play, even though the winner has to be satisfied with a piece of slum for his efforts.1956, Theron Fox, How to Make Money with Carnival Games, page 58
- Another hanky pank is the darts and balloons. No gaffs, no grift, nothing phoney. Game for the kids and the family. Get a dozen gross of slum and pass it out to the kids, and everybody'll love you.1976, Mary Carey, George Sherman, A compendium of bunk: or, How to spot a con artist
Verb
slum (third-person singular simple present slums, present participle slumming, simple past and past participle slummed)
- To visit a neighborhood of a status below one's own.
- The princess goes slumming.1953, Dalton Trumbo, Ian McLellan Hunter, John Dighton, Roman Holiday, spoken by Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert)
- When you meet the girl who wouldn't et cetera you will tell her that you are slumming, visiting your own six A.M. Lower East Side of the soul on a lark, stepping nimbly between the piles of garbage to the gay marimba rhythms in your head.1984, Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City, →ISBN, page 4
- To saunter about in a disreputable manner.
Noun (2)
slum (uncountable)
- Slumgullion; a meat-based stew.
Noun (3)
slum (uncountable)
slum meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
slum in Hindi
- dilapidated neighborhood
- बस्ती bastī, गंदी बस्ती gandī bastī
slum in Tamil
- dilapidated neighborhood
- சேரி cēri
slum in Marathi
- झोपडपट्टी
slum in Urdu
- dilapidated neighborhood
- بستی bastī
More languagesFewer languages
- slum in Bengali
- বস্তি bosti
- slum in Telugu
- మురికివాడ murikivāḍa
- slum in Malayalam
- ചേരി cēri
- slum in Kannada
- ಕೊಳೆಗೇರಿ, ಕೊಳಚೆ ಪ್ರದೇಶ, ಹೊಲಸುಕೇರಿ, ಗಲೀಜುಗಲ್ಲಿ
- slum in Punjabi
- ਝੁੱਗੀ ਝੌਂਪਡ਼ੀ
- slum in Gujarati
- સ્લમ slam
- slum in Odia
- ବସ୍ତି
- slum in Nepali
- स्लम, झुग्गी, झुग्गी बस्ती
- slum in Arabic
- مِنْطَقَة عَشْوَائِيَّة minṭaqa ʕašwāʔiyya
- slum in Malay
- setinggan
- slum in Indonesian
- kawasan kumuh, kawasan papa
- slum in Persian
- زاغه zâġe
- slum in Thai
- ชุมชนแออัด chum-chon-ɛɛ-àt, สลัม sà-lam
- slum in Vietnamese
- khu ổ chuột, ổ chuột
Examples of slum in a sentence
- One of them was staying in the slums in a room at two shillings a week and living on two pence worth of cocoa and bread per meal from Lockhart's cheap Cocoa Rooms.1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xvi
- Despite a vast change from crowded slums to tracts of wasteland, due to its grim wartime experience, this approach still provides a shabby and unworthy introduction to the great capital.1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:
- Pearson's London was what we now call central London, and much of it was slums.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 16:
- Making twenty times his investment in only seconds, the concessionaire smiled as he awarded the nickel slum, often a stuffed worm, to each unwitting pigeon.2009, Richard Margittay, Carnival Games: the Perfect Crimes, →ISBN:
Synonyms of slum
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of slum
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | slums |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | slums |
| present participle | slumming |
| past participle | slummed |
| past | slummed |
Origin of slum
First attested in 1812. Originally slang, in the sense "room", especially "backroom", of unknown origin.
See slumgullion.
Words formed from slum
Phrases with slum
Words that rhyme with slum
Questions about slum
- What does slum mean?
- Slum means a dilapidated neighborhood where many people live in a state of poverty.
- What is slum in Hindi?
- Slum in Hindi is बस्ती (bastī), गंदी बस्ती (gandī bastī). See Slum meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use slum in a sentence?
- One of them was staying in the slums in a room at two shillings a week and living on two pence worth of cocoa and bread per meal from Lockhart's cheap Cocoa Rooms.
- What part of speech is slum?
- Slum can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce slum?
- Slum is pronounced /slʌm/.
- What is the plural of slum?
- The plural of slum is slums.
Words near slum in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slum (page history and authors); slum (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ചേരി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); slum (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); slum (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slum (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); slum (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-slum.ogg.
Cite this entry: “slum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.