outskirts

/ˈaʊtskɜːts/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈaʊtskɜːrts/ (ame, ipa)

outskirts — noun

1. the outer areas of a settlement, away from the main shopping and business distri

1.名詞B1
釋義

the outer areas of a settlement, away from the main shopping and business district, where houses become fewer and the land turns towards open countryside.

例句

The Watanabe family bought a house on the outskirts of Osaka, where land was cheaper.

prepositional phrase: on the outskirts of [place]

A new recycling plant was built on the outskirts of Leeds, just off the motorway.

同義詞
  • suburbs

    more specific — refers to residential neighbourhoods on the edge of a city; 'outskirts' can include industrial and undeveloped land too

  • periphery

    more formal and abstract; suits geography or academic writing rather than everyday conversation

  • edge

    simpler and less specific — 'edge' can refer to any boundary, not just that of a settlement

反義詞
  • city centre

    the central business district of a city, which is the opposite location

  • downtown

    American English equivalent of 'city centre', referring to the core urban area

文法句型

the outskirts of [place]

用法筆記

Always used with the definite article ('the outskirts'). The noun is grammatically plural, so it takes a plural verb (e.g. 'the outskirts are'), but when the focus is on a single location, singular agreement is also heard in informal speech. Only 1 sense exists among standard dictionaries, so no cross-sense confusion is possible.

常見錯誤

❌They bought a house in outskirts of Taipei.
✅They bought a house on the outskirts of Taipei.
💡the preposition is 'on', not 'in', and 'the' is required before 'outskirts'.
❌The outskirts is very quiet.
✅The outskirts are very quiet.
💡'outskirts' is plural, so the verb should usually be plural.