ghetto.

1. An urban area in which a minority was required or pressured to live, especially a historically restricted Jewish quarter.

2. An urban district marked by concentrated disadvantage or exclusion.

3. An isolated sphere that limits contact with wider society or thought.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• historic Jewish ghetto
• segregated ghetto

On the page

The guide traced the boundary of the historic Jewish ghetto.

The old ghetto's gate marked a history the new shops could not erase.

Usage notes

Primary category: setting. Forms: Singular ghetto; plural ghettos. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.