urbanization
Americannoun
-
urbanizations
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of urbanization
Explanation
If a skyscraper is blocking the view of farmland you once had from your house window, urbanization is happening. Urbanization is a word for becoming more like a city. When populations of people grow, the population of a place may spill over from city to nearby areas. This is called urbanization. Maybe tall apartment buildings spring up on what had been the outskirts of town, bringing more people there to live and work. Urbanization can also apply to how people live. For example, if they stop driving their cars and instead rely on public transportation, as most people in cities do, that's urbanization.
Vocabulary lists containing urbanization
Human Geography - Middle School
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The Industrial Revolution - Introductory
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The United States
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
India’s dysfunctional urbanization provides an endless stream of videos: mounds of rotting garbage, trains overflowing with commuters, half-drowned school buses on flooded roads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
By the turn of the 20th century, the combined trends of industrialization and urbanization created a new class of American, the consumer.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
The rise has been fueled by urbanization, less healthy diets, more sedentary lifestyles, reduced physical activity, population aging, and increasing rates of overweight and obesity.
From Science Daily ● May 19, 2026
The two decades from 1995 to 2015 marked the greatest period of urbanization in China’s 5,000 year history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
The development of writing in Zapotec society went hand-in-hand with growing urbanization.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
