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The Suburbs vs. the Urbs
Given that most of the common words in our language beginning sub- tend to have meanings concerned with “beneath” (as in subterranean and submarine) or “less than” (as with subpar), you would be forgiven for assuming that the suburbs were so named because of their location below, or their status as less than, their urban counterparts. Not so, however: sub- may have other meanings at the beginning of a word; in this case, it indicates not depth or inferiority, but proximity. In other words, the suburbs are a region close to the urbs.
Is urbs an English word? Yes; it is rarely used, but it refers typically to a city, particularly when distinguished from a suburb.
Examples of suburb in a Sentence
Scott Wartman, The Enquirer, 1 Aug. 2025
Authorities with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the problems began when cooks at Famous Yeti's Pizza in a suburb of Madison, Wisconsin, ran out of canola oil last October.
—Trevor Hughes, USA Today, 31 July 2025
Rainfall across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast has already been above normal this summer — especially in parts of eastern Pennsylvania, central New Jersey, northern Maryland, and the DC suburbs — leaving soils saturated and primed for rapid runoff and flooding even without extreme amounts of rain.
—Briana Waxman, CNN Money, 31 July 2025
Hollande grew up in Rouen before his family moved to the richest of French banlieue (suburbs) locations, Neuilly-sur-Seiene.
—John Tamny, Forbes.com, 30 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for suburb
Cite this Entry
“Suburb.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suburb. Accessed 5 Aug. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
suburb
noun
Middle English suburb "part around the outer edge of a city," from early French (same meaning), from Latin suburbium (same meaning), from sub "under, close to" and urbs "city"
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