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ghetto

ghet·to/ˈɡɛ.toʊ/noun, adjective, verb

ghetto is spelled G-H-E-T-T-O: 6 letters and 2 syllables (ghet·to). It appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ghetto means “An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ghetto is ghettos or ghettoes.

How many letters and syllables are in ghetto?

Letters6: G-H-E-T-T-O
Syllables2: ghet·to
In writing4.9 times per million words; the 11,373rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ghetto?

Ghetto appears 4.9 times per million words in written English, the 11,373rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce ghetto?

  • UK /ˈɡɛ.təʊ/
  • US /ˈɡɛ.toʊ/
  • US [ˈɡɛɾoʊ̯]

Ghetto has 2 syllables, split ghet·to in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-ghetto.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with ghetto?

8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ghetto from its last stressed vowel (/ɛtoʊ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ghetto

  • ghettos plural
  • ghettoes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • ghetti plural
  • more ghetto comparative
  • most ghetto superlative
  • ghettoing participle, present
  • ghettoed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does ghetto mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.)

  2. 2

    An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race.

  3. 3

    An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated.

  4. 4

    derogatoryAn isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general.

  2. 2

    informalslangUnseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude.

    My apartment's so ghetto, the rats and cockroaches filed a complaint with the city!

  3. 3

    USderogatoryinformaloffensiveCharacteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States.

  4. 4

    Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States.

verb

  1. 1

    To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Ghetto in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchghetto (area of a city in which Jews were concentrated)
GermanGetto, Ghetto, Judenviertel, Judengasse (area of a city in which Jews were concentrated), gettoisieren (to confine to a ghetto)
Portuguesegueto, judiaria (area of a city in which Jews were concentrated), favelado (of low quality)
Spanishgueto, judería, aljama (area of a city in which Jews were concentrated), poblacional, flaite (of low quality), morería (area of a city where people of an ethnic group…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does ghetto come from?

Borrowed from the name of the Venetian Ghetto, whose etymology and original source language is uncertain. Compare Italian ghetto.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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