Meaning of "slum" in the English dictionary

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD SLUM

Originally slang, of obscure origin.

Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.

PRONUNCIATION OF SLUM

slum  [slʌm]

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF SLUM

Slum is a verb and can also act as a noun.

A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

The verb is the part of the sentence that is conjugated and expresses action and state of being.

See the conjugation of the verb slum in English.

WHAT DOES SLUM MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Slum

A slum is a heavily populated urban informal settlement characterized by substandard housing and squalor. While slums differ in size and other characteristics from country to country, most lack reliable sanitation services, supply of clean water, reliable electricity, timely law enforcement and other basic services. Slum residences vary from shanty houses to professionally-built dwellings that because of poor-quality design or construction have deteriorated into slums. Slums were common in the 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States and Europe. More recently slums have been predominantly found in urban regions of developing and undeveloped parts of the world, but are also found in developed economies. According to UN-HABITAT, around 33% of the urban population in the developing world in 2012, or about 863 million people, lived in slums. The proportion of urban population living in slums was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa, followed by South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, West Asia, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North Africa.

Definition of slum in the English dictionary

The first definition of slum in the dictionary is a squalid overcrowded house, etc. Other definition of slum is a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding. Slum is also of, relating to, or characteristic of slums.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO SLUM

PRESENT

Present

I slum

you slum

he/she/it slums

we slum

you slum

they slum

Present continuous

I am slumming

you are slumming

he/she/it is slumming

we are slumming

you are slumming

they are slumming

Present perfect

I have slummed

you have slummed

he/she/it has slummed

we have slummed

you have slummed

they have slummed

Present perfect continuous

I have been slumming

you have been slumming

he/she/it has been slumming

we have been slumming

you have been slumming

they have been slumming

Present tense is used to refer to circumstances that exist at the present time or over a period that includes the present time. The present perfect refers to past events, although it can be considered to denote primarily the resulting present situation rather than the events themselves.

PAST

Past

I slummed

you slummed

he/she/it slummed

we slummed

you slummed

they slummed

Past continuous

I was slumming

you were slumming

he/she/it was slumming

we were slumming

you were slumming

they were slumming

Past perfect

I had slummed

you had slummed

he/she/it had slummed

we had slummed

you had slummed

they had slummed

Past perfect continuous

I had been slumming

you had been slumming

he/she/it had been slumming

we had been slumming

you had been slumming

they had been slumming

Past tense forms express circumstances existing at some time in the past,

FUTURE

Future

I will slum

you will slum

he/she/it will slum

we will slum

you will slum

they will slum

Future continuous

I will be slumming

you will be slumming

he/she/it will be slumming

we will be slumming

you will be slumming

they will be slumming

Future perfect

I will have slummed

you will have slummed

he/she/it will have slummed

we will have slummed

you will have slummed

they will have slummed

Future perfect continuous

I will have been slumming

you will have been slumming

he/she/it will have been slumming

we will have been slumming

you will have been slumming

they will have been slumming

The future is used to express circumstances that will occur at a later time.

CONDITIONAL

Conditional

I would slum

you would slum

he/she/it would slum

we would slum

you would slum

they would slum

Conditional continuous

I would be slumming

you would be slumming

he/she/it would be slumming

we would be slumming

you would be slumming

they would be slumming

Conditional perfect

I would have slum

you would have slum

he/she/it would have slum

we would have slum

you would have slum

they would have slum

Conditional perfect continuous

I would have been slumming

you would have been slumming

he/she/it would have been slumming

we would have been slumming

you would have been slumming

they would have been slumming

Conditional or "future-in-the-past" tense refers to hypothetical or possible actions.

IMPERATIVE

Imperative

you slum
we let´s slum
you slum

The imperative is used to form commands or requests.

NONFINITE VERB FORMS

Infinitive

to slum

Past participle

slummed

Present Participle

slumming

Infinitive shows the action beyond temporal perspective. The present participle or gerund shows the action during the session. The past participle shows the action after completion.

SYNONYMS OF «SLUM»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «slum» and belong to the same grammatical category.

synonyms of slum

ghetto · hovel · shanty

TRANSLATION OF SLUM

Find out the translation of slum to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

The translations of slum from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «slum» in English.

• Translator English - Chinese: 贫民窟
• Translator English - Spanish: barriada pobre
• English: slum
• Translator English - Hindi: स्लम
• Translator English - Arabic: حَيُّ الْفُقَرَاءِ
• Translator English - Russian: трущобы
• Translator English - Portuguese: favela
• Translator English - Bengali: ঘিঁচি ঘিঁচি বস্তি
• Translator English - French: taudis
• Translator English - Malay: Kejang
• Translator English - German: Slum
• Translator English - Japanese: スラム街
• Translator English - Korean: 빈민가
• Translator English - Javanese: Slum
• Translator English - Vietnamese: nhà ổ chuột
• Translator English - Tamil: சேரி
• Translator English - Marathi: झोपडपट्टी
• Translator English - Turkish: gecekondu
• Translator English - Italian: malfamato
• Translator English - Polish: dzielnica nędzy
• Translator English - Ukrainian: нетрі
• Translator English - Romanian: cartier sărac
• Translator English - Greek: τρώγλη
• Translator English - Afrikaans: slum
• Translator English - Swedish: slum
• Translator English - Norwegian: slum

10 QUOTES WITH «SLUM»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word slum.

1

Spiro T. Agnew

I didn't say I wouldn't go into ghetto areas. I've been in many of them and to some extent I would say this; if you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all.

2

Spiro T. Agnew

I've been in many of them and to some extent I would have to say this; if you've seen one city slum you've seen them all.

3

Spiro T. Agnew

To one extent, if you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all.

4

Bonnie Bedelia

I grew up in a slum neighborhood - rows of tenements, with stoops, and kids all over the street. It was a real neighborhood - we played kick-the-can and ring-a-levio.

5

Shukla Bose

The first Parikrma school started in a slum where there were 70,000 people living below the poverty line. Our first school was on a rooftop of a building inside the slums, a second story building, the only second story building inside the slums. And that rooftop did not have any ceiling, only half a tin sheet. That was our first school.

6

Alan Brien

The majority of them give the impression of being men who have been drafted into the job during a period of martial law and are only waiting for the end of the emergency to get back to a really congenial occupation such as slum demolition or debt collecting.

7

Frank McCourt

First of all there is always that artistic challenge of creating something. Or the particular experience to take slum life in that period and make something out of it in the form of a book. And then I felt some kind of responsibility to my family.

8

Sugata Mitra

I was inspired by the Hole in the Wall project, where a computer with an internet connection was put in a Delhi slum. When the slum was revisited after a month, the children of that slum had learned how to use the worldwide web.

9

Erin O'Connor

I am aware it's easy and may be fashionable to pose with a slum child, and the irony of getting the media along means that it can come across as disingenuous. But you take these things on board, and you hope you mean it whenever you get stuck into something.

10

Dev Patel

'Slumdog' was my first movie, and I had never been to India before - I was just a teenager in the U.K. with my headphones and my Nike shoes. What did I know about growing up in a slum?

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «SLUM»

Discover the use of slum in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to slum and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

Poor Little Rich Slum

One million little Indian entrepreneurs.These are the stories of the little people who make up the Big Idea of Dharavi.

Rashmi Bansal, 2012

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a ...

As Boo gets to know those who dwell at Mumbai's margins, she evokes an extraordinarily vivid and vigorous group of individuals flourishing against the odds amid the complications, corruptions and gross inequalities of the new India.

Katherine Boo, 2012

Slum Travelers: Ladies and London Poverty, 1860-1920

Ellen Ross has collected impressions from some of the half a million women involved in philanthropy by the 1890s, most of them active in the London slums.

Ellen Ross, 2007

The Eternal Slum: Housing and Social Policy in Victorian London

Profusely illustrated with contemporary photographs and drawings, this book is the definitive study of the housing reform movement in Victorian and Edwardian London and suggests what it was really like to live under such appalling ...

Anthony S. Wohl, 2001

The Gold Coast and the Slum: A Sociological Study of ...

"This is a book about Chicago.

Harvey Warren Zorbaugh, 1983

Slum Upgrading and Participation: Lessons from Latin America

This book offers five geographically and institutionally diverse case studies from Latin America, where some of the longest-running and most successful programmes in this field have been conducted.

Ivo Imparato, Jeff Ruster, 2003

Planet of Slums

An exploration of modern-world urbanization cites a concerning rise in slum life that currently accounts for nearly one-fifth of the world's population, arguing that urban populations are disconnected and exempt from the formal world ...

Mike Davis, 2006

A Rights Based Approach to Slum Rehabilitation and Housing: ...

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2005 in the subject Urban and Regional Planning, grade: A+, - (Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai), course: M.Phil in Planning and Development, language: English, abstract: This study attempts to ...

Binti Singh, 2013

Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia's Largest Slum

Written With Rare Sensitivity And Empathy, Rediscovering Dharavi Is A Riveting Account Of The Triumph Of The Human Spirit Over Poverty And Want.

Kalpana Sharma, 2000

Slum Tourism: Poverty, Power and Ethics

This edition provides the first systematic overview of the field and the diverse issues connected to slum tourism. This multidisciplinary collection is unique both in its conceptual and empirical breadth.

Fabian Frenzel, Ko Koens, Malte Steinbrink, 2012

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «SLUM»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term slum is used in the context of the following news items.

Toxic moonshine kills 102 in Mumbai slum

The incident took place near Laxmi Nagar, a large slum in Mumbai, India's financial ... There were emotional scenes in Laxmi Nagar slum Monday as the body of ... «CNN, Jun 15»

Brazil to send police back into Rio slum after boy's death

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Brazil will send more officers back into a Rio de Janeiro slum amid public outcry over a 10-year-old boy killed during a police shootout, ... «Yahoo News, Apr 15»

AP PHOTOS: Christians in Pakistan slum amid blasphemy cases

ISLAMABAD (AP) — This slum on the outskirts of Pakistan's capital looks like many others ringing it, with dirt roads and cement-block homes, until a passer-by ... «Yahoo News, Feb 15»

Jamaica truth commission explores bloody slum raid

One after another, survivors from the warren-like Tivoli Gardens slum are telling a truth commission what they experienced during one of the bloodiest incidents ... «Yahoo News, Dec 14»

Liberia Seals Off Slum To Control Ebola, Angry Residents Clash …

Hundreds of slum residents clashed with the gunmen, furious at being blamed and isolated by a government that has failed to quickly collect dead bodies from ... «Huffington Post, Aug 14»

End comes for notorious Venezuelan vertical slum

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The beginning of the end came for the world's tallest slum Tuesday as officials began evicting thousands of squatters from a ... «Yahoo News, Jul 14»

'Horses of God' follows path of 4 men from Moroccan slum to suicide …

The film, directed by Nabil Ayouch, follows the path of four Moroccan men from the Sidi Moumen slum as they become suicide bombers. (AP Photo/Kino Lorber, ... «Fox News, May 14»

Brazilian army occupies Rio shantytown ahead of World Cup

... the slum, home to 130,000 people, ahead of the World Cup, which runs from June 12 to ... police have now seized control from drug gangs in dozens of slums. «CNN, Apr 14»

500 homes destroyed in fire at slum in South Delhi

500 homes destroyed in fire at slum in South Delhi ... 500 jhuggis (huts) were destroyed in a fire at a large slum in South Delhi's Vasant Kunj this morning. «NDTV, Apr 14»

Rio 'pacified' slum hit by violence

Violence broke out in a Rio de Janeiro slum after its residents lit fires and threw homemade explosives to protest the earlier death of a local. At least one person ... «Aljazeera.com, Apr 14»