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ghetto

/ˈɡɛtəʊ/

noun

Meaning

  • An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)

  • An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity or race.

  • An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.

  • (sometimes derogatory) An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.

Synonyms

ivory tower

verb

Meaning

  • To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.

adjective

Meaning

  • Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.

  • Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.

  • Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.

  • Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.