DictionaryAI

rural

SayRUUR-uhlUS/ˈɹʊ.ɹəl/UK/ˈɹʊə.ɹəl/

Noun pluralrurals

2 meanings of rural

Practice

  1. 1
    adjective
    Relating to the countryside or to farming, rather than to towns and cities.

    The region remains largely rural, with farms stretching to the horizon.

    Rural broadband access still lags behind service in the cities.

    UsageMostly said of places and ways of life: rural areas, rural schools. A place can be more rural than another.

    Similaragricultural, agrarian, rustic, pastoral

    Oppositeurban, suburban

    Note

    Robert Barr's Lord Stranleigh Abroad (1913) speaks of lakes that are "gently rural." Its plain opposite is urban, and suburban names the ground in between.

  2. 2
    nounobsolete
    A person from the countryside; a country-dweller or rustic.

    UsageFor this meaning today, say rustic or country dweller instead.

    Note

    English once turned the adjective straight into a noun with an ordinary plural, rurals, much as rustic still works both ways. That use is now obsolete.

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Origin

Latin rūs ("countryside") plus the suffix -ālis gave rūrālis ("rural"), which passed into Old French as rural and from there into English.