urban

Syllables: urb·an/ˈɜː.bən/US/ˈɝ.bən/

urban adjective: of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place, especially when contrasted with the countryside.

Adjective

urban (comparative more urban, superlative most urban)

Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place, especially when contrasted with the countryside.
- urban life
- urban traffic
Living in a city or town.
- Inſomuch, as thoſe citizens vvere reputed for cheeſe and principall, vvho vvere poſſeſſed of land and living in the countrey: and theſe made the State, called the Ruſtick Tribes, in Rome: vvheras contrarivviſe the other eſtate, reputed the meaner in degree, vvas named the Vrbane Tribes; conſiſting...1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XVIII.] Of Iugerum, and Actus. Of the Ancient Lawes Ordained for Cattell in Old Time. How Often and at what Times Corn and Victuals were...
- The Epithets of myce are thes; ſhort, ſmall, fearful, peaceable, ridiculous, ruſtik, or country mouſe, vrbane, or citty mouſe, […]1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner]; Edward Topsell, “Of the Vulgar Little Mouse”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 504
Having authority or jurisdiction over a city or town.
- All theſe Magiſtrats are but temporary, and have a time limited them; the Urbane or Citty Magiſtrats ſome of them continue in office 6. months, others 8. months, others are annuall; […]1651, James Howell, “Of Officers or Magistrats in Generall”, in S.P.Q.V.: A Survay of the Signorie of Venice, […], London: […] Richard Lowndes […], →OCLC, page 16
(US, archaic, proscribed) Relating to contemporary African American culture, especially in music.
(UK, US, euphemistic, offensive) Of an inhabitant or resident: black; African-American.

Proper noun capitalized: Urban

UK/ˈɜːb(ə)n/US/ˈɜɹbən/

Urban (countable and uncountable, plural Urbans)

(uncommon) A male given name from Latin.
A surname originating as a patronymic.
An early Christian, also Urbane and Urbanus in various versions of the Bible.
- Grete wel Vrban, oure helpere in Crist Jhesus, and Stacchen, my derlyng.1380s, Wycliffe translation of the Bible, Romans 16:9
(abbreviation, ellipsis, informal) Ellipsis of Urban Dictionary.
- Or my Oxford English Dictionary (OED), do you think I can get Urban to mainstream it for me?2000 March 13, Christopher Flather, “i'm bored”, in alt.pro-wrestling.wwf (Usenet), archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026
- You have to go "Urban" to resolve this one......2003 December 29, Sarge, “Palm OS 4.1”, in alt.computer (Usenet), archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026

urban meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu

urban in Hindi

of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place: नगरीय nagrīya

urban in Tamil

நகர்ப்புற

urban in Marathi

शहरी

urban in Telugu

of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place: నగర nagara

More languagesFewer languages

urban in Punjabi: ਨਾਗਰਿਕ nāgrik, ਸ਼ਹਿਰੀ śahirī
urban in Gujarati: શહેરી
urban in Tagalog: panlungsod, panlunsod, lunsurin
urban in Arabic: حَضَرِيّ ḥaḍariyy, مَدَنِيّ madaniyy
urban in Persian: شهری šahri
urban in Vietnamese: thành phố, đô thị, thành thị
urban in Myanmar: မြို့ပြ mrui.pra.

Examples of urban in a sentence

As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast.2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, archived from the original on...
Parkour – often referred to as freerunning – entails creatively moving through an urban environment: flipping, jumping and vaulting across various obstacles.2022 June 16, Issy Ronald, “Meet the parkour athletes defying fear and gravity at Red Bull Art of Motion”, in CNN, archived from the...

All 40 example sentences with urban

Antonyms of urban

Forms of urban

Adjective
comparative	more urban
superlative	most urban
alternative form	urbane
Proper noun
plural	Urbans

Origin of urban

Borrowed from Middle French urbain (“belonging to a city, urban; courteous, refined, urbane”) (modern French urbain), or from its etymon Latin urbānus (“of or belonging to a city, urban; of manners or style: like those of city dwellers: cultivated, polished, refined, sophisticated”) + English -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). Urbānus is derived from urbs (“city; walled town; Rome”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- (“to encircle, enclose; a belt; an enclosure, fence”) or *werbʰ- (“to enclose”)) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives). For the euphemistic or proscribed term, it was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music.

Latin Urbānus, name of eight early popes, from urbānus (“of the town or city, urbane”). Doublet of Orban.

Words formed from urban

Words that rhyme with urban

Questions about urban

What does urban mean?: Urban means of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or happening or located in, a city or town; of, pertaining to, or characteristic of life in such a place, especially when contrasted with the countryside.
What is urban in Hindi?: Urban in Hindi is नगरीय (nagrīya). See Urban meaning in Hindi.
How do you use urban in a sentence?: As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast.
What part of speech is urban?: Urban can be an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce urban?: Urban is pronounced /ˈɜː.bən/ (UK).

Words near urban in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: urban (page history and authors); Urban (page history and authors); urban (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); urban (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); urban (Gujarati, 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-urban.wav.

Cite this entry: “urban.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/urban. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.