barrio
/bˈɑɹioʊ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.85 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
3
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A municipality or subdivision of a municipality in Spanish America, and in Spain itself.
noun
A slum on the periphery of a major city, or a low to middle-class neighborhood in a lesser city, in Venezuela or the Dominican Republic.
noun
A rural barangay or neighborhood.
noun
An area or neighborhood in a US city inhabited predominantly by Spanish-speakers or people of Hispanic origin.
American usage; Informal
Example Sentences
- "In the barrio, they talked excitedly about the wood-gatherer's discovery. There was so much pushing and quibbling over details that by the time the barrio had organized itself to set out for Salug to investigate, dusk had already fallen."
- "After World War II, its prospering working-class white residents moved to other, more upscale suburban developments, and by the 1950s the area had become an isolated ethnic enclave with its own barrio gang."
- "Mr. Jones and me, stumbling through the barrio"
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: بَرِّيّ, ب ر ر, Barrio