tent city

noun

plural tent cities
: a collection of many tents set up in an area to provide usually temporary shelter (as for people who don't have a permanent place of residence)
Tent cities of displaced homeowners have sprung up …Matt Woolsey
Anti-sweatshop protesters at FSU pitched a tent city last March to demand that the school join the Workers Rights Consortium …Meline Toumani et al.

Examples of tent city in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
To accommodate the tens of thousands of holy men, pilgrims and tourists, authorities have built a sprawling tent city on the riverbanks. Kyra Colah, Fox News, 8 Feb. 2025 Preparing for the Festival A vast tent city has been built along the riverbanks, spanning 15 square miles and divided into 25 sections with 3,000 kitchens, 150,000 restrooms, housing, roads, electricity, water, communication towers, and 11 hospitals. John Mac Ghlionn, Newsweek, 13 Jan. 2025 Politics and capital intertwine endlessly, accumulating power as the tent cities proliferate, and the state functions as nothing more than an instrument of torture, imprisonment and surveillance. Siddhartha Deb, New York Times, 10 Jan. 2025 Construction of a tent city is underway and the center is now reportedly equipped to hold 120 migrants, a far cry from the 30,000 Trump hopes to detain there eventually. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Newsweek, 4 Feb. 2025 See all Example Sentences for tent city 

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tent city was in 1838

Dictionary Entries Near tent city

Cite this Entry

“Tent city.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tent%20city. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.

Kids Definition

tent city

noun
: a group of many tents set up to provide usually temporary shelter (as for displaced or homeless people)
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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