as in favelas
a usually poor town or a part of a town where the people live in shanties
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Recent Examples of shantytowns
In the brightly billboarded carcass of a West Coast city, private security shields the corporate enclaves of a tech élite from the shantytowns of the economically superfluous.
—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
Their target was the Comando Vermelho (CV), or Red Command, a criminal organization that has ruled these hillside shantytowns for decades.
—Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
Farmers once proud of living and working their ancestral land were driven into poverty and forced into shantytowns.
—Nik Kowsar, Time, 2 Oct. 2025
These new shantytowns are plagued with substance abuse, violence and prostitution.
—Chicago Tribune, 17 Aug. 2025
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
Their target was the Comando Vermelho (CV), or Red Command, a criminal organization that has ruled these hillside shantytowns for decades.
—Alessandra Freitas, CNN Money, 9 Nov. 2025
Farmers once proud of living and working their ancestral land were driven into poverty and forced into shantytowns.
—Nik Kowsar, Time, 2 Oct. 2025
These new shantytowns are plagued with substance abuse, violence and prostitution.
—Chicago Tribune, 17 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for shantytowns
Noun
-
One of my most memorable trips was a lengthy jaguar hunt into the jungles of Brazil with the late Al Georg, outdoor writer and handgun enthusiast.—
Jim Hoagland,
Outdoor Life,
30 Apr. 2026
-
After fleeing Afghanistan to Brazil with her parents and two sisters, a four-month journey over rugged mountains and through thick jungles, enduring hunger and cold, sleepless nights, brought them to America.—
Santa Ana College,
Oc Register,
30 Apr. 2026
Noun
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But without available shelter beds – which are clustered 10 miles west of the neighborhood in Parramore and are full most nights – the effort usually results in scattering people elsewhere, or into more encampments.—
Ryan Gillespie,
The Orlando Sentinel,
26 Apr. 2026
-
If this decision is upheld on appeal, every city in the Ninth Circuit will be sued for clearing encampments and federal judges will be managing homelessness policy rat by rat.—
Susan Shelley,
Oc Register,
25 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Shantytowns.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shantytowns. Accessed 4 May. 2026.
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