slum
77
3.0
- noun
- /slʌm/
:
barrio marginal
- The worst slum I've ever seen is a place called West Point, which is the, the biggest slum in West Africa.
- slum dwellers
- living in slums
- slum living conditions
And it was like in the slums, like, we were very poor.
- And it was like in the slums, like, we were very poor.
- And it leads to very dense slums basically on the outskirts of cities.
- She grew up in the slum in in Calcutta.
- They went into the Mukuru slum in Nairobi.
- And what the guy told me was the baby died because this particular slum doesn't get clean water.
- It's about this gang of thieves in like, the slums of a city.
- He'd say why do the main roads not pass through the town, through the slums?
- They weren't union leaders, they weren't Marxists, they weren't the urban poor from the slums of the city.
- Well, the slums have no formal addresses, but ask any slum dweller and everyone knows who lives where.
- And I have to say, in fairness to, to that side of the family, he was raised in what was borderline a slum in, in Birkenhead.
- It's what lifted him up from the worst situation in America, the slums, the ghetto of Southside Queens, to the heights of power.
- If you took the bus all the way into the city and went somewhere else, you'd be in a grimy, gritty slum.
- Yeah, but the one in Paraguay, which was in the heart of the slums, that's been branded as the world's most dangerous prison.
- Yeah, the shit hole, the shit hole, the slums, the gutter.
- I mean, a first world slum in somewhere like Portland.
Examples
-
For those living in the slums of Praia, these are important elements of hope.
Academic text (2008) -
The real me was brought up as a nice middle-class kid which is not the easiest thing in the world when you are extremely poor and living in a slum.
-
And where would a slum boy like you get the money for this fancy car?
-
Five years ago I was a single mother living in a slum.
-
By the time we get to 1900, Dublin is the biggest slum in Europe.
-
And what the guy told me was the baby died because this particular slum doesn't get clean water.
-
We have people either in slums or people living in overcrowded rooms with the whole family.
-
For the most part, life in the slums is really rather dreary and dull.
Academic text (1991) -
They live in slums and work long hours in dreadful conditions.
-
Growing up in a slum meant that basic necessities were often hard to come by.
Synonyms
80
5.6
A poor crowded part of a city where a minority group lives
6
7.0
An area of a city where very poor people live in small rough houses
3
7.7
An area of a city where many homeless people live and buildings look run down
2
2.7
A poor part of a city where many people live in small, crowded houses
A poor area on the edge of a city where people live in simple houses made from metal or wood
Antonyms
Compounds
How Run-down
6
7.0
77
3.0
Surface Forms
Etymology
Slum likely appeared as 19th-century slang for a crowded, poor part of a city. A helpful way to remember it is to think of the similar word slump, meaning 'to fall', because a slum is a place that has 'fallen' into poor condition.