urbanity
/ɝˈbæn.ə.ti/noun
urbanity is spelled U-R-B-A-N-I-T-Y: 8 letters and 4 syllables. It appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 113,022nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, urbanity means “Behaviour that is polished, refined, courteous” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of urbanity is urbanities.
How many letters and syllables are in urbanity?
| Letters | 8: U-R-B-A-N-I-T-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 14 million words; the 113,022nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 urbanity?
Urbanity appears about once in every 14 million words in written English, the 113,022nd 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 urbanity?
- UK /əːˈbæn.ɪ.ti/
- US /ɝˈbæn.ə.ti/
Urbanity has 4 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-urbanity.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with urbanity?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as urbanity from its last stressed vowel (/ænəti/):
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 urbanity
- urbanities plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does urbanity mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Behaviour that is polished, refined, courteous.
- 2
Urbanness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Urbanity in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense polished and courteous behavior:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | urbanité, civilité |
| Portuguese | urbanidade |
| Spanish | urbanidad, educación, modales, corrección, cortesía |
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 urbanity come from?
From Middle English urbanitie, from Middle French urbanité, from Latin urbānitās, from urbānus (“belonging to a city”), with a sense of "having the manners of townspeople" in Classical Latin, from urbs (“city”); equivalent to urbane + -ity (sense 1) and urban + -ity (sense 2).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).