Meaning & use
suburbanite
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Meaning
nouncountable
A person who lives in a residential area on the edge of a city rather than in the center or in the countryside.
Grammar: Has a plural: many suburbanites commute, one suburbanite complained.
Patterns
- a suburbanite from somewhere
- suburbanites who commute
Like most suburbanites, she drove into the city only for work and the occasional concert.
The new rail line is aimed at suburbanites who are tired of sitting in traffic.
He grew up on a farm, but after twenty years he considers himself a true suburbanite.
Word forms
| plural | suburbanites |
|---|
Common combinations
- typical suburbanite
- The survey describes the typical suburbanite as a homeowner with two cars.
- affluent suburbanites
- Affluent suburbanites filled the new shopping center on opening day.
- commuting suburbanites
- Commuting suburbanites crowd the platforms before eight each morning.
- a middle-class suburbanite
- As a middle-class suburbanite, he spent weekends mowing the lawn.
- suburbanites flock to
- Suburbanites flock to the downtown market on Saturdays.
Synonyms and how they differ
- commuter
- A commuter is defined by the daily trip to work, so it describes a habit, while suburbanite describes where someone lives.
- city dweller
- A city dweller lives inside the urban core, which is roughly the opposite of a suburbanite.
- resident
- Resident is a much broader term and says nothing about the type of neighborhood.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: suburbanite or urbanite?
suburbanite vs urbanite
An urbanite lives in the city proper, while a suburbanite lives in its outskirts.
Practice
Which person is best described as a suburbanite?
Choose one answer.
A suburbanite lives in a residential area on the edge of a city. The other options describe rural, visiting or remote people.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “suburbanite”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.