Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The process of rendering urbane or urban in character; the state of being urbanized.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the process of the formation and growth of cities
  • noun the change in a country or region when its population migrates from rural to urban areas
  • noun the proportion of a region's population that live in towns and cities; the rate at which this proportion is growing

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the condition of being urbanized
  • noun the social process whereby cities grow and societies become more urban

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • "The researchers surmised that the creation of colonial cities around the turn of the century was the catalyst that allowed the HIV virus to take hold.

    Dr. Steven M. Wolinsky, a co-author of the study, said that colonial cities meant not just more potential hosts for viruses living in closer quarters, but also prostitution and other high-risk behaviors for transmitting the virus.

    'Urbanization was probably the main trigger,' said Wolinsky, an infectious diseases specialist at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago."

    -- HIV Dates Back to Around 1900, Study Shows, LA Times , Oct. 2, 2008

    October 3, 2008