urbanur‧ban /ˈɜːbən $ ˈɜːr-/ ●●○ W2 adjective [only before noun] 
unemployment in urban areas the deprived sections of the urban population► see thesaurus at city2relating to music such as rap, R & B, reggae etc that is mainly played by black singers and musicians
WORD ORIGINurban
Origin:
1600-1700 Latin urbanus ‘urban, sophisticated’, from urbs ‘city’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- urban growth
- urban unemployment
- China's growing urban population
- post-war urban planning
- the urban population
- The problem of air pollution is especially serious in urban areas.
- Furthermore, one way of saving money has been to allow larger classes, with severe overcrowding in some urban primary classrooms.
- Larger urban dioceses in the Northeast, including the Archdiocese of Boston, have yet to experience any serious shortage of priests.
- So stations call themselves urban to make themselves more attractive to those agencies which would never buy a black station.
- We recommend immediate large-scale immunisation of the urban population, as well as tightened surveillance and appropriate vector control.
- We will double the number of Safer Cities Schemes to cover 40 urban areas.
THESAURUSplace with houses, shops, and offices
a large area with houses, shops, offices etc that is often the centre of government for an area. A city is bigger than a town: · The nearest big city is San Francisco.
a large area with houses, shops, offices etc. A town is smaller than a city: · La Coruña is a pretty seaside town.
(also capital city) the city where the government of a country or state is: · We travelled to Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
a big busy city that is full of people and activity: · After 1850 Paris grew quickly into a busy metropolis.
adjective [only before noun] relating to towns and cities: · Air pollution is particularly bad in urban areas.· urban development
Longman Language Activatorrelating to or in a town · The town council has proposed a new road building project.· With better town planning, traffic problems could be avoided.town square (=a square in the centre of a town) · A market is held daily in the town square.
relating to or in a city: · The city library cost over $15 million to build.· Residents blame city officials for poor housing conditions.· the city authoritiescity streets: · Beneath the city streets is a network of sewers.city life: · City life is becoming increasingly dangerous.
British relating to a village: · There is a village festival every year at the beginning of May.· Has village life changed significantly in the last few years?village shop/school/hall etc: · We have a church, one pub and a village shop.
relating to towns and cities, the people who live in them, or the things that happen in them: · The problem of air pollution is especially serious in urban areas.· China's growing urban population· post-war urban planning· urban growth
relating to the government of a city or town: · Civic leaders cannot agree on what is best for the city.· An important civic function is taking place in the city hall this evening. · Harlow Council has always been generous with civic funding for music and the arts.· It is the civil duty of every citizen to vote.
relating to the government of a town or city or to the public services it provides: · Municipal elections will be held on April 12th.· Not far from the town centre is the municipal park.· The museum and other municipal buildings are threatened.
American in or belonging to the main business area in the centre of a town or city: · Taylor worked in a dingy little office in downtown Chicago.· Many downtown department stores are moving out into the wealthier suburbs.· a downtown hotel
relating to a large city: · Some workers can only afford homes outside metropolitan areas.· the metropolitan authorities
WORD SETSabyss, nounalluvial, adjectivealluvium, nounalpine, adjectiveAmerican, adjectiveAntarctica, anticyclone, nounarchipelago, nounArctic, adjectivearid, adjectiveAsia, atlas, nounatoll, nounAustralasia, Australasian, adjectiveAustralia, avalanche, nounaxis, nounbank, nounbarometer, nounbarrier reef, nounbasin, nounbay, nounbayou, nounbeach, nounbearing, nounbed, nounbight, nounbluff, nounborder, nounborder, verbborderland, nounborderline, nounborough, nounbox canyon, nounBritish, adjectivebutte, nouncanyon, nouncape, nouncapital, nouncardinal point, nounCaribbean, adjectivecartography, nouncay, nounchain, nounchaparral, nounchart, nounchasm, nounchimney, nounChinese, adjectivecirrus, nounCIS, nouncliff, nounclimate, nounclimatic, adjectivecoastal, adjectivecoastline, nouncockney, nouncol, nouncold front, nouncommuter belt, nouncompass, nounconfluence, nouncontinent, nouncontinental, adjectivecontinental shelf, nouncontour, nounconurbation, nouncoordinate, nouncorridor, nouncorrie, nouncoterminous, adjectivecouncil estate, nouncountry, nouncounty, nouncounty town, nouncourse, nouncove, nouncrag, nouncraggy, adjectivecreek, nouncrevasse, nouncrevice, nouncumulus, nouncyclone, noundateline, noundelta, noundesert, noundesert island, noundevelopment, noundistrict, noundivide, noundown, adverbdune, noundust bowl, nouneast, nouneast, adjectiveeast, adverbeastbound, adjectiveeasterly, adjectiveeasterly, nouneastern, adjectiveEasterner, nouneasternmost, adjectiveeastwards, adverbelevation, nouneminence, nounenvirons, nounequatorial, adjectiveerode, verberosion, nounescarpment, nounestuary, nounEurope, nounextraterritorial, adjectiveeyot, nounface, nounfarmland, nounfeeder, nounfiord, nounfirth, nounfjord, nounflood plain, nounfluvial, adjectivefrontier, nounfrontiersman, noungale force, adjectivegap, noungeo-, prefixgeography, noungeophysics, noungeopolitics, noungeyser, nounglacial, adjectiveglaciation, nounglacier, nounglobe, noungoldfield, noungorge, noungrassland, nounGrecian, adjectivegreen belt, noungrid, noungrotto, noungroundwater, noungulch, noungulf, noungully, nounhead, nounheadland, nounheadwaters, nounheartland, nounhemisphere, nounhighland, adjectivehighlands, nounhigh water mark, nounhinterland, nounHome Counties, the, homeland, nounhurricane, noun-i, suffixIberian, adjectiveiceberg, nounice cap, nounice floe, nounice pack, nounice sheet, nouninhabitant, nouninland, adjectiveinland, adverbinlet, nouninner city, nouninshore, adverbinsular, adjectiveintercontinental, adjectiveInternational Date Line, nounisland, nounisle, nounislet, nounisobar, nounIsraeli, adjectiveIsraeli, nounisthmus, nounItalian, adjectiveItalianate, adjectiveItalo-, prefixJapanese, adjectivekey, nounknoll, nounlagoon, nounlake, nounlandlocked, adjectivelandmass, nounlandslide, nounlandslip, nounlat., Latin, adjectiveLatin America, nounLatin American, adjectivelatitude, nounlevee, nounlittoral, nounlong., longitude, nounlongitudinal, adjectivelough, nounlowlands, nounlow-lying, adjectivelow water mark, nounmagnetic north, nounmagnetic pole, nounmarsh, nounmarshland, nounmeander, verbMediterranean, adjectiveMercator projection, nounmeridian, nounmesa, nounMiddle America, nounmidtown, adjectivemonsoon, nounmoorland, nounmorass, nounmountain, nounmountainside, nounmountaintop, nounmouth, nounmudslide, nounmull, nounnarrows, nounnavigation, nounNE, neck, nounnor'-, prefixnorth, nounnorth, adjectivenorth, adverbNorth America, nounnortheast, nounnortheast, adjectivenortheasterly, adjectivenortheastern, adjectivenortheastwards, adverbnortherly, adjectivenorthern, adjectivenortherner, nounnorthernmost, adjectivenorthwards, adverbnorthwest, nounnorthwest, adjectivenorthwesterly, adjectivenorthwestern, adjectivenorthwestwards, adverbnotch, nounNW, NZ, oasis, nounoccidental, nounocean, nounonshore, adjectiveopenness, nounOrdnance Survey map, nounoriental, adjectiveoutcrop, nounoverspill, nounpack ice, nounpaddy, nounpalisade, nounpan-, prefixpanhandle, nounparallel, nounpeak, nounpeninsula, nounPersian, adjectivephysical geography, nounplain, nounplateau, nounpoint, nounpolar, adjectivepole, nounpolitical geography, nounpollutant, nounpop., populate, verbpopulation, nounprairie, nounprecipice, nounprecipitation, nounPrime Meridian, principality, nounprojection, nounpromontory, nounprovince, nounprovincial, adjectivepueblo, nounR, rainfall, nounrain forest, nounrain gauge, nounrainstorm, nounrange, nounravine, nounreef, nounreference, nounregion, nounregional, adjectiverelief map, nounreservoir, nounresettle, verbresidential, adjectiveresource, nounridge, nounrift valley, nounrise, verbriver, nounriver basin, nounriver bed, nounRoman, adjectiverotation, nounrugged, adjectiverun-off, nounrural, adjectivesand, nounsand bar, nounsandstorm, nounsandy, adjectivesavanna, nounScandinavian, nounscar, nounscarp, nounscree, nounscrubland, nounSE, seaboard, nounsea breeze, nounseafront, nounsea level, nounseaport, nounseaward, adjectivesection, nounsemitropical, adjectiveshelf, nounslough, nounsmog, nounsnowfield, nounsource, nounsouth, nounsouth, adjectivesouth, adverbSouth America, adjectivesoutheast, nounsoutheast, adjectivesoutheasterly, adjectivesoutheastern, adjectivesoutheastwards, adverbsoutherly, adjectivesouthern, adjectivesouthernmost, adjectivesouthwards, adverbsouthwest, nounsouthwest, adjectivesouthwesterly, adjectivesouthwestern, adjectivesouthwestwards, adverbspeleology, nounspit, nounspur, nounstrait, nounsubcontinent, nounsubtropical, adjectivesuburb, nounsuburban, adjectivesummit, nounsurvey, nounsurvey, verbSW, swamp, nountableland, nounterrain, nounterritory, nountidal, adjectivetidal wave, nountidewater, nountime zone, nountop, nountopography, nountor, nountornado, nountown, nountown centre, nountowpath, nountrack, nountract, nountrade route, nountrail, nountransatlantic, adjectivetranscontinental, adjectivetributary, nountropic, nountropical, adjectivetundra, nountyphoon, nounUK, the, uncharted, adjectiveup, adverbup-country, adjectiveuplands, nounupper, adjectiveupriver, adverbupstate, adjectiveupstream, adverbuptown, adverburban, adjectiveurbanized, adjectiveurban renewal, nounurban sprawl, nounUS, the, adjectivevalley, nounW, warm front, nounwaste, adjectivewasteland, nounwater, verbwatercourse, nounwaterfall, nounwaterfront, nounwaterhole, nounwatering place, nounwater meadow, nounwatershed, nounwater table, nounwaterway, nounweather vane, nounwest, nounwest, adjectiveWest, nounwestern, adjectiveWesterner, nounwesternmost, adjectivewestward, adverbwilderness, nounwolds, nounzoning, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY unemployment in urban areasCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES City planners are looking for ways to ease traffic. a new strategy for urban regeneration We drove through miles of urban sprawl before we finally got out into the countryside. the restoration of industrial wastelandCOLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
unemployment in urban areas (=in a town or city)· 90% of the English population live in urban areas.
(=in a town)· In 1911 over three-quarters of the British people lived in urban districts.
(=life in the country/city/suburbs)· The girls hated their drab suburban existence.
· We are seeing uncontrolled urban expansion in many African cities.
City planners are looking for ways to ease traffic. (=poor people who live in towns and cities)· The condition of the urban poor could no longer be ignored.
(=the people who live in towns or cities)· The region's urban population will more than double in the next two decades.
· People come to the capital seeking to escape rural poverty.
a new strategy for urban regeneration· The urban riots forced the Government to invest in the inner cities.
· The research station is located in a rural setting.
We drove through miles of urban sprawl before we finally got out into the countryside. (=in towns or cities)· Unemployment and poor housing were significant causes of urban unrest.
the restoration of industrial wasteland· We will double the number of Safer Cities Schemes to cover 40 urban areas.· It is difficult to target economic development activities so that the most distressed urban areas or disadvantaged social groups are assisted.· An Indoor Leisure Complex and an hotel which could be sited in the urban area are unlikely to receive planning permission.· Half of the U. S. Latino population lives in these cities and the surrounding urban areas.· These factors differ among communities and between rural and urban areas within a country.· I have heard this concern raised particularly in urban areas with high concentrations of minority and disadvantaged young people.· Mr. Win Griffiths I entirely agree with the hon. Gentleman about the sensitivity of rail routes through urban areas.· In other urban areas, 816 permits were issued in San Antonio, or one every 1, 192 residents.
· Blacks in large numbers started leaving the South for northern urban centers in the 1920s.· Westerners are often tempted to write off the great urban centers of the developing world as almost beyond hope.· It was to its urban centers that those interested in a better education and a broader range of opportunities were drawn.
· In the case of trusts based on prosperous urban centres, there was a considerable increase in the participation of smaller savers.· The all-important production of silk, for example, remained located outside the big urban centres throughout the prewar years.· By the mid-1980s, confrontations were not confined to major urban centres, but were occurring in most parts of the country.· As for the regionally-planned green field sites for development, they are usually placed near new urban centres deliberately to provide employment.· The regeneration arena: housing policy as a response to the desire to revitalise declining urban centres and the rural economy.· With the development of urban centres and religious foundations greater demand would have been placed on the hinterland.· Ideologically sound sisters moved to hard-to-let housing in depressed urban centres and sold their properties to hotels and banks.· Secular, economic power gravitated towards the lowlands and to the urban centres in particular.
· In recent years the number of initiatives have been increasing rapidly with development concentrated in deprived urban communities.· The studies sampled selected rural and urban communities or ethnic or religious sub-groups.· The participant observation techniques in this study were similar to those used in the urban community studies.· In Britain two examples of cohort studies provide descriptive accounts of patterns of infant care in urban communities.· Some sort of urban community was already there in embryonic form.· The three sources are: Firstly the secular, moral and emotional behaviour of characters found in rural or urban communities.· The Malays were an urban community many of whom lived in Colombo and Hambantota.
· However, virtually all were designed at least partially to house people and jobs from the older urban cores.· These groups tend to locate in the older urban cores as a result of factors examined earlier.· But there was no abrupt re-orientation of government spending towards the urban cores from 1977 to 1979.· Why have so many left the older urban cores?· It identified a series of constraints impinging on the urban cores and on many of those living within them.· These functions, as mentioned earlier, are found increasingly beyond the urban cores.
· In short, unemployment must be considered as the primary agent causing and maintaining urban deprivation.
· This is reflected in the exhibit itself, which is a bit cluttered, but then, so is urban design.· Enter the emerging and evolving practice of urban design in L.A.
· A further category of urban development was the growth of trading and financial centres.· Towards this end, federal involvement in efforts to guide urban development had to be eliminated or at least dramatically reduced.· Agriculture has also been the beneficiary of rapid industrial growth and urban development, which have created expanding market opportunities.· The urban development corporations first introduced by the Conservative government in 1981 are one example of this.· Similarly, the increasing use of urban development corporations ind Whitehall grants in inner cities would further undermine local authorities.· They claim, further, that all this stimulated urban development.· And for this we have to scrutinize the comparative process of urban development.· Ancient and well-established episcopal churches tended to stabilize subsequent urban development.
· It was the ordinary police who prevented a complete collapse of law and order in the loyalist urban districts of Belfast.· At one time there were no urban districts - they simply grow up around commercial and industrial interests.· By 1935 the population of the urban districts had grown to 295,000.
· Furthermore, the causes of fuelwood scarcity must seem remote and diffuse to the average urban dweller.· What the farmer gets is what the urban dweller pays minus transportation and distribution costs.· The power that small hill farmers and poorer urban dwellers have in the state apparatus and in society at large is negligible.· The real customers of the Department of Housing and Urban Development have not been poor urban dwellers, but real estate developers.· Indeed, Cairenes are among the most resourceful of urban dwellers.· Census takers historically have undercounted urban dwellers, particularly blacks and ethnic minorities, they argued.· Dogtags were distributed among urban dwellers to make identification of the dead easier in the aftermath of what seemed inevitable.· As federal and state support for the cities diminishes, poor urban dwellers will become even more destitute and marginalized.
· By working with others we can demonstrate the real contribution that chartered architects can make in reviving our urban environment.· Most talked about the need to make a bridge between nature and their school's urban environment.· In an urban environment, basement flats are not advisable for the single dweller.· Air pollution and energy conservation aside, private vehicles also come under attack when we consider rural and urban environments.· It is composed of species adapted to the urban environment and is influenced strongly by the availability of seeds.· The Industrial Revolution transformed the face of the countryside and thrust workers together in the new urban environments, packed and smoky.· The high quality of much of Glasgow's urban environment is increasingly important in attracting visitors and investors to the city.· For one thing they were a rural party in an urban environment.
· The authors of Conurbation were particularly interesting in their treatment of the urban fringe.· Land in the urban fringe is also at a premium for recreation, whether for rambling or for sports and recreation grounds.· Most of the conflicts concerning agriculture and amenity also occur in a particularly acute form on the urban fringe.
· The condition of insecurity which often prompts people to migrate to towns means that urban growth occurs under highly unfavourable circumstances.· The need now was for urban policies that matched the new challenges posed by the economics of urban growth and decline.· Under what circumstances has urban growth occurred?· Demographers estimate that about 60 percent of recent urban growth has resulted from high birthrates in the cities themselves.· Suburban sanctuaries often became the foci for further urban growth.· Excellent displays show how animals and plants are displaced by urban growth and the consequences of pollution.· This was largely because these were areas in which planning authorities were aimed at containing urban growth and preserving open country.· Low farm prices have also forced farmers off the land and into the city, even as urban growth consumes valuable farmland.
· The cycle of death leads us on towards the urban landscape that follows.· This splendid lithograph by Bourne gives one a vivid idea of the impact of the railway on urban landscapes.· Even in today's greatly changed urban landscape, the K ppersm hle in Duisburg is still a striking city landmark.· Another photograph of an industrial and urban landscape that no longer exists.· Demolition firms and builders are busy changing the urban landscapes.
· They have, through happenstance, and the nature of urban life that crunches lives and experiences together, simply become entangled.· Many who live in the unincorporated metro-area come here to escape the hassles of urban life.· Then, from discussing modern urban life, Eliot makes a remarkable leap.· The fluctuations, then, are well within the range of ordinary urban life and hardly noticeable to humans.· We want to say quite explicitly that the language with which the problems of contemporary urban life are addressed is necessarily problematic.· As the seventies progressed, the center of gravity of much of urban life seemed to shift.· But even without this unbuilt scheme there were enough dramatic changes in urban life to defeat conventional interpretations.· Obviously, in the increasingly crowded cage of urban life we have had to adapt.
· It remains to be seen whether the archaeologists will win out over the urban planners.· Traditional building materials tend to imply low-rise housing, and urban planners have an ambivalent attitude to low-rise.
· Clinton has pledged to refocus attention on the crumbling cities of the United States, with a new urban policy.· In the context of urban policy this meant that cities must follow the lead of private enterprise.· Hence, the Reagan urban policy celebrates the themes of deregulation, decentralization and privatization.· However, Labour's urban policy can not be perceived as anything other than meagre.· The need now was for urban policies that matched the new challenges posed by the economics of urban growth and decline.· The corollary of this is the increasing emphasis that has been placed on urban policies, such as Inner-City Partnerships and Enterprise Zones.· Under federal law, however, the President must send a national urban policy report to Congress every other year.
· With the urban population growing towards 320 million by the year 2000, social and political tensions are likely to increase.· The apparent increasing prevalence of depression and mental-health disorders in ageing and socially fragmented urban populations.· There may be a number of reasons why urban population loss has moderated.· Substantial parts of the urban population were better off in material terms and there had been changes in attitudes.· Yet not only was the urban population rapidly increasing, it was becoming ever more complex and articulate.· Surveys in the 1970s showed that 40 percent of Britain's urban population suffered from traffic-induced noise.· Without these, the dense urban populations of the twentieth century would not have been possible.· National statistics show there has been a general decline in Britain's urban population.
· It may be that urban poverty then was no worse than poverty in the country.· Can the problems of urban poverty be blamed on individual pathology?· These policies were inpart based on assumptions about the causes of rural and urban poverty and low growth.· The core issue is that of urban poverty.
· A range of policy innovations were needed to overcome or to moderate the urban problems.· The definition of the urban problem had changed dramatically.· Overcrowding was not just an urban problem.· Unlike some of its counterpart urban problems commissions, the Housing Commission was active-meeting monthly-and influential almost from the beginning.· To bring the argument full circle, one frequently-neglected aspect of the urban problem is the political dimension.· Once again it was asserted that urban problems resulted from too little private investment and their resolution required an extension of privatism.· The search for comprehensive solutions to complex urban problems has once again defied disciplinary and professional boundaries.· Still, urban problems intensify, as the example of Cairo makes plain.
· Outlines two policy scenarios, one focusing on urban regeneration and the other on rural protection and urban compaction.· The retraction of finances from city coffers calls into question the government's real commitment to urban regeneration.· We will support Urban Development Corporations in their critical task of urban regeneration.· Lax local authority policies and the undermining of policies of restraint on appeal, severely undermine processes of urban regeneration.· The use of sport to help or lead urban regeneration is often centred on conspicuous facilities designed to host major events.· There can be no doubt about the need for urban regeneration in the Cardiff docklands.· It seems in retrospect that the Task Force in Merseyside was driven by Heseltine's particular vision of urban regeneration.· Over the past six or seven years we have been victims of the city council's urban regeneration strategy.
· An important issue associated with urban renewal concerned the locus of program control.· In the fifth century the popes embarked, in alliance with the local aristocracy, on a programme of urban renewal.· Critics point out the neighborhood had been living under the threat of condemnation for 10 years, while urban renewal was debated.· Bellway Homes urban renewals division is building 140 two and three-bedroomed houses and flats for sale at Netherfields Green.· Once urban renewal was complete, it would be hard for newcomers to know that anything else had ever been there.· This area has seen much urban renewal over the past few years, with £6 million spent on rebuilding and refurbishment programmes.· The urban renewal administrative process drew considerable criticism because it was so long and encumbered with red tape.
· The displacement of large numbers of rural dwellers to urban areas has increased overcrowding in urban schools.· Moreover, many of our urban school systems are in crisis.· As parents choose where to send their children some small schools are being by-passed for the larger urban schools.· Two years ago, he was honored by fellow urban school chiefs.· Schools are often the target for petty acts of vandalism and urban schools in particular sometimes suffer from graffiti attacks.· The influx of fresh cash did enable Richmond Unified to become a model urban school district.· Suburbs are almost universally middle or upper-middle class; their homogeneity is even more monolithic than urban schools.· Even in urban schools, physical conditions are often difficult.
· It was egalitarian and free from the weakening and divisive influence of the Roman world and of urban society.· Both, in fact, were based on urban societies enjoying the benefits of trade and riches.· We started with the best of intentions, to heal the new wounds of an industrial, urban society.· But from Gujarat east, the urban societies were committed to Hindu and Hindu-Buddhist traditions.
· The result was an urban sociology which came very close to that which we have been developing in this book.· To adequately understand the beginnings of urban sociology we need to develop this theme a little further.· The question must arise, therefore, why this kind of urban sociology has become unfashionable.· The time has come to start using these concepts and arguments in relation to present-day urban sociology.· Political economy and class perspectives on urban sociology lend little credence to this type of analysis.· Contemporary Marxist urban sociology places much less emphasis on the supposed necessity for the state to be engaged in collective consumption.· They have broken the mould of the old structuralist and determinist urban sociology.· This kind of understanding is quite distinct from that usually associated with contemporary urban sociology.
· This factor had considerable importance in engendering urban sprawl.· It negates home-field advantage for home-grown retailers and contributes to urban sprawl.· Ribbon development, urban sprawl and scattered housing were all brought under reasonable control.· Nor are the results of urban sprawl always aesthetic.· A fictionalised countryside comes back to brighten the dark heart of the urban sprawl.· If you want the definition of urban sprawl, look at one-acre or three-acre lots.· These powers were permissive, and in most of Britain urban sprawl and ribbon development continued more or less unabated.· They soon left the urban sprawl of roundabouts, sodium streetlights and Wimpey homes and Dexter began to speed along country lanes.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES► centre of population/urban centre
1relating to towns and cities OPP rural: - Recent approaches to inner city renewal have relied very heavily on institutional innovations and tighter targeting of expenditure patterns.
unemployment in urban areas the deprived sections of the urban population► see thesaurus at city2relating to music such as rap, R & B, reggae etc that is mainly played by black singers and musicians