downtown

From down +‎ town.

• Hyphenation: down‧town
• Rhymes: -aʊn

• Audio (US):

  (file)

downtown (not generally comparable, comparative further downtown or farther downtown or more downtown, superlative furthest downtown or farthest downtown or most downtown)

1. Of, relating to, or situated in the central business district.

   John walked every day to his downtown job.

   • 2017 April 6, Samira Shackle, “On the frontline with Karachi’s ambulance drivers”, in The Guardian‎^[1], archived from the original on 5 June 2018:

     “Human flesh got stuck to me,” he recalls now, as we sit in the ambulance control centre in downtown Karachi.

   • 2025 June 26, Judith Fein, “A sunny spot where desert, mountains and cultures mix”, in CNN‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 June 2025:

     The famed Farmers & Crafts Market on Main Street in downtown Las Cruces is a lively gathering of regional farmers, bakers, makers, jewelers, artists, food trucks and street musicians.

downtown (not generally comparable, comparative further downtown or farther downtown or more downtown, superlative furthest downtown or farthest downtown or most downtown)

1. In or towards the central business district.

   You need to go downtown four blocks.

   A storekeeper downtown was shot dead last evening.

   • 1964, Tony Hatch, “Downtown”, performed by Petula Clark:

     When you're alone and life is making you lonely / You can always go downtown

2. (basketball) Outside the three-point line, or generally far from the basket.

   That shot came from way downtown!

• go downtown

downtown (plural downtowns)

1. (chiefly US, Canada) The main business part of a city or town, usually located at or near its center.

   Synonyms: city center, town centre, central business district, (Australia) city, (in Charlotte, NC) uptown

2. (US, slang) The human genitalia.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vulva, Thesaurus:vagina

3. (slang) Heroin.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:heroin

• uptown
• oldtown

• “downtown n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• Eric Partridge (2005), “downtown”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volume 1 (A–I), London; New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 647.

Borrowed from English downtown.

downtown m (invariable)

1. downtown (financial district)

   Synonym: city