Word
gentrify
Meanings
To make a neighborhood more wealthy and fashionable, typically causing housing costs to rise.
To update an area’s buildings and businesses in a way that appeals to higher-income residents and visitors.
Definition
To change a neighborhood by attracting wealthier residents and businesses, often pushing out long-time communities.
To gentrify means to transform an area—especially an older, lower-income neighborhood—so it becomes more attractive to higher-income people and investors. This often brings renovations, new shops, and rising property values. However, it can also lead to higher rents and the displacement of long-term residents and local businesses.
Examples
- The city’s new transit line helped gentrify the district within a few years, reshaping who could afford to live there.
- I worry that the project will gentrify my neighborhood so quickly that the families who built it will be priced out.
- They watched the waterfront slowly gentrify as boutique hotels replaced the old workshops and rents climbed.
- She criticized plans to gentrify the market area without protecting the small vendors who depended on it.
Common mistake
Learners sometimes use gentrify to mean simply “improve,” but it specifically implies an influx of wealth and often displacement effects.
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