Meaning & use
shantytown
Last updated
UK/ˈʃæntitaʊn/
US/ˈʃæntiˌtaʊn/
Meaning
nouncountable
An area of crude, poorly built homes where poor people live, often on the edge of a city.
Grammar: Countable: a shantytown, many shantytowns.
Patterns
- a shantytown on the edge of something
- live in a shantytown
Thousands of families lived in a shantytown beside the highway.
The government plans to replace the shantytown with proper housing.
Floods destroyed much of the shantytown last spring.
Word forms
| plural | shantytowns |
|---|
Common combinations
- sprawling shantytown
- A sprawling shantytown surrounded the city.
- live in a shantytown
- Many workers live in a shantytown near the factory.
- clear a shantytown
- The authorities cleared the shantytown last year.
- shantytown dwellers
- Shantytown dwellers often lack clean water.
- shantytown on the outskirts
- A shantytown on the outskirts grew quickly.
Synonyms and how they differ
- slum
- Slum is wider, describing any overcrowded run-down area, and can sound more negative than shantytown.
- favela
- Favela is the Brazilian word for such an area and is used mainly in that context.
- informal settlement
- Informal settlement is a neutral, official-sounding term that avoids the judgment in shantytown.
- squatter camp
- Squatter camp stresses that people occupy land without permission.
Opposites
suburbgated community
Word family
Commonly confused: shantytown or sea shanty?
shantytown vs sea shanty
A sea shanty is a work song sung by sailors; shanty in shantytown means a rough hut.
Practice
The city grew so fast that a ____ of tin-roofed huts appeared on the hills.
Choose one answer.
A shantytown is an area of crude, poor housing. A skyscraper or suburbia suggests very different housing.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shantytown”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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