American suburb

A residential area outside a major city, characterized by single-family homes, car dependency, and relatively low density.

American suburbs emerged dramatically after World War II with highway expansion and affordable mortgages.

The term often carries connotations of conformity, racial homogeneity, and middle-class aspiration: They moved to the suburbs for better schools.

Suburban development patterns—strip malls, cul-de-sacs, lawn culture—have become shorthand for a particular vision of American life, romanticized and criticized in equal measure.