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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ghetto.

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.)

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡɛ.təʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɛ.toʊ/General-American[ˈɡɛɾoʊ̯]General-American
  1. 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.)

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

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

  4. An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.

    derogatory · figuratively · sometimes
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.

adj/ˈɡɛ.təʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɛ.toʊ/General-American[ˈɡɛɾoʊ̯]General-American
  1. Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.

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

    informal · slang
    My apartment's so ghetto, the rats and cockroaches filed a complaint with the city!
    I like to drive ghetto cars; if they break down you can just abandon them and pick up a new one!
  3. Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.

    US · derogatory · informal · offensive · often
  4. Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.

verb/ˈɡɛ.təʊ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡɛ.toʊ/General-American[ˈɡɛɾoʊ̯]General-American
  1. To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.