noun/verb · neutral
sprawl
/sprɔːl/SPRAWL
the uncontrolled spreading of urban development into surrounding rural areas
Examples
“Uncontrolled sprawl has turned once-green fields into suburbs full of identical houses.”
“Cities that sprawl typically face longer commutes and higher infrastructure costs.”
“Policymakers try to limit sprawl by encouraging higher-density housing in city centres.”
Band 8 sentence
“One major challenge for planners is curbing urban sprawl without pricing regular workers out of city centres.”
Collocations
- urban sprawl
- suburban sprawl
- unchecked sprawl
Word family
Common mistakes
The city has many sprawls.→The city has a lot of sprawl.
They try to prevent the city sprawl.→They try to prevent urban sprawl.
The city is sprawl.→The city is sprawling.
Say it for a higher band
5expansion→6urban expansion→7+sprawl
Synonyms
expansion
spread
Easily confused
expansion
“The town's expansion was carefully planned, but the suburbs' sprawl was chaotic.”
Related words
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In Environment & Climate
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