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Catttt Posted 10 years ago
Vocabulary

urbanity and urbanism

Does anybody know the difference between urbanity and urbanism? Their meanings in dictionaries and wikipedia are very overlapping, however they appear distinctively in books. Can I interpret that urbanism is about the fact and act of living in cities while urbanity is the behavior of people who are the subject of urbanism? Urbanism is our life in the urban environment, while urbanity is our tendency to behave in a urban manner in the city?
  

Top answer

e. com/us/definition/american_english/urbanity ). "urbanism" cannot mean this.

— GPY

  • e.
  • com/us/definition/american_english/urbanity ).
  • "urbanism" cannot mean this.
  • I'm not sure whether this is the distinction being made in your book though.
  • One would need to see the full text.
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3 Answers
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If referring to a person, "urbanity" normally means the quality of being urbane, i.e. "Suavity, courteousness, and refinement of manner" (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/urbanity). "urbanism" cannot mean this. I'm not sure whether this is the disti
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(The following is US usage. Note: both of these words are rarely used in US English. I'm a native English speaker in the US and I've never used either in my entire life.)

"Urbanity" would have the sense of sophistication, as a result of living in a big city:

"He's the epitome of urbanity."

"Urbanism" would be used in a more technical sense:

"With new developm
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AnonymousThe following is US usage
Do you believe that there is a difference here between US usage and usage elsewhere? Unless you have a specific reason to think so, I do not think it is helpful to mention it. By prefixing every comment with "this is US usage", you risk giving the false impression that every aspect of the English language is likely to be diff
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