Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Slum |
SlumAdjective1. (of housing or residential areas) indicative of poverty; "a slummy part of town"; "slum conditions". Noun1. A district of a city marked by poverty and inferior living conditions. Verb1. Visit slums for entertainment or out of curiosity. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "slum" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1838. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Building & Civil Engineering | A small, mean, or dilapidated cottage; a wretched dwelling. Source: European Union. (references) |
Mining | A. The very finely divided clayey portion of the residue overflowing from a sluice box, particularly applied to deep lead mining b. A short roadway to the dip in coal mines used solely to stock spare cars or the spake until required at the end of the shift c. A soft clayey or shaley bed of coal. Also spelled slumb. d. Used in the plural for the discharge or waste from hydraulic mines.See also:tailing; slime. (references) |
Public Administration | An area of habitations and other buildings which, by their poor construction, lack of upkeep, unsanitary occupation, fall short of the human needs of comfort and hygiene and contribute to social instability. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A Slum is an overcrowded and squalid district of a city or town usually inhabited by very poor people. Slums can be found in most large cities around the world.
Slums are usually characterised by high rates of poverty and unemployment. And are breeding centres for many social problems such as crime, drugs, alcoholism and despair. And in many poor countries they are also breeding centres for disease due to unsanitary conditions. Slums are different from ghettos because ghettos usually have one race.
In many slums especially in poor countries, people live in very narrow alleys that do not allow vehicles (like ambulance, firefighters) to pass. Garbage accumilates in huge quantities. In some slums people collect the city cans for a living, later recycling them for the money.
Many governments around the world have attempted to solve the problems of slums by clearing away old decrepid housing, and replacing it with modern usually high rise housing with much better sanitation. This proccess is usually called "Slum clearance". Slum clearances have however not usually been successful in reducing the social problems associated with slums. Because the residents of the new housing, usually still face poverty and unemployment.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Slum."
Synonyms: SlumSynonyms: slum(a) (adj), slummy (adj), slum area (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Uncleanness | Sty, pigsty, lair, den, Augean stable, sink of corruption; slum, rookery. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Slum |
| English words defined with "slum": decline ♦ fearful, frightful ♦ guttersnipe ♦ street urchin ♦ terrible ♦ worsen. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "slum": blighted area. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Slum" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. German (slum), Swedish (slum). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Assumed?! Now, listen to me, you people! I've seen all kinds of dishonesty in my day, but this little display takes the cake. You come in here with your heart bleeding all over the floor about slum kids and injustice, and you make up some wild stories, and all of a sudden, you start getting through to some of these weak-kneedWell, you're not getting through to me (12 Angry Men; writing credit: Reginald Rose) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Leona Baumgartner, Commissioner of Health for New York City, inspects slum clearing. / WHO p. Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by Homer Page.. |  | Memphis, Tenn. Mar. 1939. Families at Dixie home, a US public works administration project covering 42 acres of former slum area / p. Credit: Library of Congress; photo by Sekaer.. |
 | Houses in slum area in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | House in slum area in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Saint Croix Island, Virgin Islands. Slum village of La Vallee. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Lares, Puerto Rico. Slum street. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Children living in slum area. Elkins, West Virginia. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Utuado, Puerto Rico. Children in the slum area. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Slum dwellings near the capitol. Washington, D.C. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Newark Housing Authority, 57 Sussex Ave., Newark, New Jersey. Slum interior I. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Slum" by Valerio Lo Bello Commentary: "A slum in a winter afternoon on the beach." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
H.g. Wells | Mankind which began in a cave and behind a windbreak will end in the disease-soaked ruins of a slum. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Human Rights | Haiti | In response, mobs from the adjacent slum of Cite Soleil began searching for gang members. (references) |
Haiti | On November 2-4, violence in the Port-au-Prince slum of La Saline led to 4 deaths, 17 injuries, and the destruction of hundreds of homes. (references) | |
Haiti | In late June, a coalition of national human rights organizations published a report on the June 14 massacre in the Port-au-Prince slum of Fort Mercredi. (references) | |
Minorities | Burma | There are credible reports that anti-Islamic booklets were distributed throughout the country in 1999. In addition in 1999 and 2000, the Government forcibly relocated approximately 200 Buddhist slum dwellers from Dagon township in Rangoon to Arakan State; the relocation had the dual effect of contributing to the elimination of slums in Rangoon, while increasing the population of Buddhist citizens in Arakan State. (references) |
Political Economy | BANGLADESH | In cooperation with the Non-Formal Education Directorate of the Government and some NGO partners, UNICEF is implementing a "hard-to-reach" program to provide education to 350,000 (primarily working) children in urban slum areas around the country. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | I recommend to you a program to rebuild completely, on a scale never before attempted, entire central and slum areas of several of our cities in America. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Slum" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 96.54% of the time. "Slum" is used about 289 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 96.54% | 279 | 17,495 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 3.46% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Total | 100.00% | 289 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "slum": deterioration into slum ♦ slum area ♦ slum clearance ♦ slum dwelling. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "slum": slum-clearance, slum-cleared, slum-dweller, slum-dwellers, slum-dwelling, slum-housing, slum-kid, slum-like, slum-owners. | |
Ending with "slum": non-slum, semi-slum. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "slum"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | agterwyk (back street), agterbuurt (back street). (various references) | |
Albanian | lagje e varfër. (various references) | |
Arabic | حي الفقراء, عاش في ذل, عاش في بؤس, ألحياء الفقيرة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | овехтяла порутена къща, обикалям бедните квартали, живея бедняшки, беден квартал, пренаселен квартал. (various references) | |
Chinese | 贫民窟. (various references) | |
Czech | ubohé obydlí, brloh (hole, hovel). (various references) | |
Danish | slumområde (blighted area, insalubrious zone, insanitary district, insanitary quarter, insanitary zone, slum area, slum quarter, twilight zone), slumkvarter (blighted area, insanitary district, insanitary quarter, slum area, slum quarter, twilight zone), slumbolig (hovel, slum dwelling), saneringsmoden bolig (hovel, slum dwelling, substandard housing, unsanitary dwelling, unsanitary housing), usund bolig (hovel, slum dwelling, substandard housing, unsanitary dwelling, unsanitary housing). (various references) | |
Dutch | achterbuurt (back street). (various references) | |
Esperanto | kvartalaĉo (back street). (various references) | |
Farsi | محله کثیف , محلات پرجمعیت وپست شهر, خیابان پرجمعیت . (various references) | |
Finnish | slummi. (various references) | |
French | taudis (slum dwelling). (various references) | |
Frisian | efterôfbuert (back street). (various references) | |
German | Elendsviertel (slums), slum. (various references) | |
Greek | πτωχογειτονιά, φτωχογειτονιά (slums). (various references) | |
Hebrew | משכנות עוני, שכונת עוני (shantytown). (various references) | |
Hungarian | nyomornegyed (shantytown, slums). (various references) | |
Indonesian | perkampungan kumuh, gang (alley, alleyway, breezeway, corridor, gang, gangway, narrow street, passage, passageway). (various references) | |
Italian | catapecchia (hovel, jeryhouse, ramshackle hut, shack), tugurio (hovel), rione popolare (back street), quartiere popolare (back street). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 裏屋 (alley house, rear tenement), スラプスティック喜劇 (slam, slapstick). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | うらや (alley house, rear tenement), スラム (slam). (various references) | |
Korean | 빈민굴. (various references) | |
Manx | slummey. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | umslay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | rua ou viela sórdida, pocilga (fox earth, kennel, pen, pigpen, sty, swinery), pardieiro (cow-house), morro (hill), favela (shantytown), casebre pobre e sujo, bairro pobre, bairro miserável, bairro degradado. (various references) | |
Romanian | stradã murdarã, mahala (district, outskirts, Rookery, suburb), cartier (district, neighborhood, neighbourhood, section, vicinity, ward). (various references) | |
Russian | трущоба. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | straćara (shack, shanty), sirotinjski kvart. (various references) | |
Spanish | barrio bajo (back street, skid row, skiddoo row), casucha (dump, hole, hovel, jeryhouse, ramshackle hut). (various references) | |
Swedish | slumkvarter (shantytowns), slum (blighted area, insanitary district, insanitary quarter, slum area, slum quarter, twilight zone). (various references) | |
Thai | แหล่งเสื่อมโทรม. (various references) | |
Turkish | yoksul ev, kenar mahalle (Rookery, skirt, slums, suburb), gecekonduda yaşmak, gecekondu mahallesinde yaşamak, gecekondu mahallesi (shacktown, shantytown, slums), gecekondu (shanty, squatter's house), fakir semtleri hayır için dolaşmak (go slumming), fakir semt (poor quarter, slums). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | глухий закуток, відвідувати нетрі, нетрі (purlieus, wilds), пробиратися завулками, дурниця (absurdity, absurdness, applesauce, balderdash, ballyhoo, bosh, buncombe, froth, humbug, mush, nonsense, piffle, poppycock, porridge, rigmarole, rubbish, sappiness, shucks, trash, tripe). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | khu nhà ổ chuột. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "slum": slumber, slumbered, slumberer, slumberers, slumbering, slumberous, slumbers, slumbery, slumbrous, slumgullion, slumgullions, slumgum, slumgums, slumism, slumisms, slumlord, slumlords, slummed, slummer, slummers, slummier, slummiest, slumming, slummy, slump, slumped, slumpflation, slumpflations, slumping, slumps, slums. (additional references) | |
| |
"Slum" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dlum, Ellum, elum, ilum, olum, Salum, selum, seum, shum, silium, Silom, silum, slamm, slamo, slome, slu, sluc, slud, sluf, slui, slumy, slune, solom, solum, soum, spam, spum, su, sul, sulh, summ. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "slum" (pronounced slu"m) |
| 3 | -l u" m | plum, Plumb, glum, Lum. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: lums. | |
| Words within the letters "l-m-s-u" | |
-1 letter: lum, mus, sum. | |
-2 letters: mu, um, us. | |
| Words containing the letters "l-m-s-u" | |
+1 letter: alums, culms, lumps, mauls, mules, mulls, plums, slump, slums, solum. | |
+2 letters: albums, algums, almuds, almugs, ampuls, asylum, blumes, clumps, clumsy, flumes, flumps, glomus, glumes, haulms, larums, lemurs, limbus, linums, litmus, locums, lumens, miauls, moguls, moulds, moults, muesli, mulcts, muleys, mulish, mullas, murals, muscle, muscly, muslin, mussel, oleums, plumbs, plumes, plumps, qualms, shlump, slummy, slumps, smugly, solums, ulamas, ulemas, umbels, umbles. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Quotations: Speeches 12. Usage Frequency | 13. Expressions 14. Expressions: Internet 15. Translations: Modern 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
