slum

UK/slʌm/US/slʌm/

nounB2+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,551 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: slums

A slum is a poor crowded city area of makeshift houses. Live in a slum, slum clearance, the slums of the city.

The United Nations counts about a billion people as living in one, defined by insecure tenure and lack of water, sanitation and durable housing. Slum clearance often moved people without rehousing them. To slum it means to accept worse conditions than usual.

Definitions of slum

1nounslumA poor crowded city area of makeshift houses.B2+
“She grew up in a slum on the edge of the city, where there was no clean water.”

slum is a district.

Where it comes from

First recorded in 1812 as slang for a room, especially a back room; the further origin is unknown.

1812. Originally slang, in the sense "room", especially "backroom", of unknown origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the City

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slum in the wild

Although slums are usually located in urban areas, they can be located in suburban areas where housing quality is low and living conditions are poor.
Slum
While slums differ in size and other characteristics, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, law enforcement, and other basic services.
Slum
Black African residents, then a minority in the suburb, lived in slum-yards.
Doornfontein
Under the Slums Clearance Act 1934, the slum-yards were cleared and many residents were relocated to Orlando, Soweto.
Doornfontein
Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, and also the largest urban slum in all of Africa.
Kibera

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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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