Word
Kana: きんこう Romaji: kinkou Level: N1

近郊

Meaning in English

suburbs, outskirts

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What it means

What does 近郊 mean? It denotes the areas close to a city center, typically the suburbs or immediate surrounding districts that lie within the metropolitan hinterland; used in geography, urban planning, and real estate to describe the zone adjacent to urban cores.

Main meanings

  • Suburban zones or districts immediately surrounding a city, within easy reach of urban amenities.
  • In planning and real estate contexts, the area evaluated for development or residential appeal outside the city core.
  • May imply a degree of proximity that supports commuting or access to the central city.

How to use it

Used in formal and neutral contexts such as geography, urban planning, and real estate journalism; collocations include 近郊都市, 近郊住宅街, 近郊開発; typically followed by の or a descriptive noun; casual speech may also use 近郊 to refer to nearby districts.

Variants and close terms

  • 郊外 (kōgai) — outskirts, suburbs
  • 周辺 (shūhen) — surrounding areas, periphery

Composition

  • 近 = near, close; 郊 = suburb, outer region; together they form a noun describing the zone that lies near a city center, i.e., the metropolitan fringe.

Etymology

On'yomi kin, kō; a Sino-Japanese compound formed from the readings of 近 and 郊 to denote proximity to a city and its surrounding areas.

Word class

Noun (名詞)

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