ghetto

Meaning

Noun

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

Adj

1. Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.
2. (informal, slang) Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.
3. (US, derogatory, informal, offensive, often) Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.
4. Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.

Verb

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

Synonyms

slum

shantytown

crowded

den

inner city

slums

Translations

ghetto

gueto

ghetto

Getto

gueto

getto

γκέτο

Ghetto

gueto

getto

ghetto

favelle

judiaria

gettomsu

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡɛtəʊ/

Etymology

Cognate with Italian: ghetto

In summary

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