slum
Americannoun
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Often slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people.
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any squalid, run-down place to live.
verb (used without object)
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to visit slums, especially from curiosity.
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to visit or frequent a place, group, or amusement spot considered to be low in social status.
noun
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a squalid overcrowded house, etc
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(often plural) a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding
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(modifier) of, relating to, or characteristic of slums
slum conditions
verb
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to visit slums, esp for curiosity
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Also: slum it. to suffer conditions below those to which one is accustomed
Other Word Forms
- deslum verb (used with object)
- slummer noun
- slummy adjective
Etymology
Origin of slum
1805–15; compare earlier argot slum room; origin obscure
Explanation
A slum is a poor area of a big city. A slum is usually overcrowded and dirty, a discouraging place to live. Some of a city's neighborhoods are fancy and full of wealthy people, while others are slums (and most are somewhere in between). In a slum, most people are poor. The living conditions are inferior in a slum, which may not have the stores, restaurants, and health services its residents want or need. In the early 1800's, the term was back slum, which meant "back alley" or "street of poor people," and was eventually shortened to simply slum.
Vocabulary lists containing slum
Chapter 21: An Urban Society
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Society
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Thirst
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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.
Hussain Ahmed, 20, whose family lives in Machhar Colony, one of Karachi's largest slum areas where most of the population is comprised of Bengalis, does not have Pakistani nationality or an identity card.
From Barron's • Feb. 23, 2026
She learnt that the child lived in a slum and could not afford to go to school.
From BBC • Feb. 18, 2026
Policymakers who pushed slum clearance—Mr. Husock calls it “progressivism at its most confident”—likewise ignored the concerns of residents.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 7, 2025
One of those counterproductive policies was slum clearance, which paved the way for public housing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 7, 2025
My mother, the former Angela Sheehan, grew up in a Limerick slum with her mother, two brothers, Thomas and Patrick, and a sister, Agnes.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
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.
