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Glite Dictionary
thickly settled

thickly settled

4.5
An area where many people live close together
  • adjective
translation icon : densamente poblado
  • The urban planner focused on redeveloping thickly settled areas to create more green spaces.

Examples

  • In a thickly settled region like this, traffic congestion can become a significant issue.

  • Instead of a landscape of scattered villages and farm plots, as was once believed, excavations revealed bustling towns and thickly settled farmland.

    Academic text (2009)

  • The fire spread quickly through the thickly settled neighborhood, leaving many families homeless.

Synonyms

populous
vsthickly settled
23 4.4

A place where many people live close together

emphasizes people living very close together in that area
dense
vsthickly settled
9 3.2

Crowded with people or things packed closely together

applies specifically to many people living close together not to physical things
built-up
vsthickly settled
7 4.0

An area with many buildings and little open land

focuses on many residents living close together rather than on buildings

Antonyms

underpopulated
1 6.1

A place with fewer people than usual for the area

How Populated

overcrowded
18 3.1
populous
23 4.4
thickly settled
4.5
uninhabited
20 4.0

Surface Forms

thickly settled positive

Morphology

thickly + settled

The meaning 'densely populated' is directly and transparently derived from 'thickly' (in a dense or heavy way) modifying 'settled' (inhabited), so a learner who knows both words can compose the sense. This compositional pattern (adverb indicating density + 'settled' meaning inhabited) is cross-linguistically common and predictable for a B1 learner.

Etymology

Thickly settled paints a simple picture: imagine land so full of houses and people that it looks 'thick' with homes. The words thickly meaning 'crowded' and settled meaning 'lived in' show why it means 'having many people living close together'.