rural

UK/ˈɹʊəɹəl/US/ˈɹʊɹəl/

adjectiveB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,863 of 15,258mostly written

Rural means belonging to the countryside, far from cities. A rural area, rural life, rural broadband.

The opposite is urban. Rural is the word used in policy and statistics — rural population, rural deprivation, rural transport — and it is defined by settlement size rather than by scenery. Rural idyll is the phrase for the romantic version, and it is usually written by somebody who does not live there. Note rustic, which means rural in a picturesque and slightly rough way; and rural dean, a church office.

Definitions of rural

1adjectiveruralBelonging to the countryside.B2
“Rural broadband there is about a tenth of the speed in the city.”

rural is a quality of the countryside.

Where it comes from

Latin ruralis comes from rus, the countryside — the same root as rustic. In rus was the Roman phrase for going out of the city, and the whole English vocabulary of the country divides between this Latin word and the native Germanic ones.

Latin
rūrālis — rural
Old French
rural
English, today
rural

Built from

rūs · Latin — countryside

From Old French rural, from Latin rūrālis (“rural”), from rūs (“countryside”) + -ālis.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sharper Adjectives, Farm & Countryside

Practise this word

rural in the wild

In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities.
Rural area
Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements.
Rural area
The department is responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in England.
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
A selsoviet is the shortened name for Selsky soviet, i.e., rural council.
Selsoviet
The name refers to the local rural self-administration, the rural soviet (council), a part of the Soviet system of administration.
Selsoviet

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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