Urbanizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To convert a rural locality into an urban environment by enhancing its infrastructure and increasing the number of inhabitants
2. The transition of areas from rural to urban status through population growth and the establishment of city-like features
3. The process of transforming a rural area into a city by developing infrastructure and increasing population density

Etymology: Urbanize is a plain formation: the adjective "urban" with the English suffix "-ize", which itself came down through Late Latin "-izare" and Ancient Greek "-izein", a verb-making ending used to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs meaning "to make or become something." The adjective "urban" was borrowed into English from Latin "urbanus", meaning "of the city," and that Latin adjective is built on "urbs", "city." So the verb literally means "to make or become city-like." The sense in the definition, a rural area gradually taking on urban status through population growth and city-style features, follows directly from that meaning. The word describes change over time: a village or countryside becoming a town or city, with the apartments, roads, shops and services that go with it. The verb is used in both transitive and intransitive forms, as in "the highway urbanizes the valley" or "the valley urbanized quickly."

Synonyms: develops, modernizes, industrializes, metropolitanizes, civilizes

Antonyms: ruralizes, deurbanizes, suburbanizes, dismantles, declines