downtown

From down +‎ town.

• Hyphenation: down‧town
• Rhymes: -aʊn

downtown (not comparable)

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:

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

downtown (not comparable)

1. In or towards the central business district.

   You need to go downtown four blocks.

   • 1964, Tony Hatch (lyrics and music), “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

2. (US, slang) The human genitalia.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vulva, Thesaurus:vagina

3. (slang) heroin.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:heroin

• uptown
• oldtown

• Jonathon Green (2024) “downtown n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Eric Partridge (2005) “downtown”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 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