Meaning & use
bedroom city
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A city whose residents mainly live there but travel to another city for work.
Grammar: Countable: a bedroom city, two bedroom cities.
Patterns
- a bedroom city for something
- commute from a bedroom city
Many people commute from this bedroom city to the capital every day.
The town grew into a bedroom city for workers in the nearby industrial zone.
Bedroom cities often have few local jobs, so residents travel far to work.
Word forms
| plural | bedroom cities |
|---|
Common combinations
- a bedroom city for workers
- The area became a bedroom city for factory workers.
- commute from a bedroom city
- She commutes from a bedroom city to downtown.
- grow into a bedroom city
- The village grew into a bedroom city over two decades.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bedroom community
- More common in American English; it can refer to a town or a residential area within a larger city.
- commuter town
- Common in British English; it usually means a town, not a city, where people live and commute.
Commonly confused: bedroom city or bedroom community?
bedroom city vs bedroom community
Similar meaning, but 'bedroom community' is the usual term in the US, while 'bedroom city' is more common in the Philippines.
Practice
What is a 'bedroom city'?
Choose one answer.
A bedroom city is a residential city whose inhabitants commute to another city for work. The other options are literal or incorrect interpretations.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bedroom city”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.