Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of the country.
  • adjective Of or relating to people who live in the country.
  • adjective Of or relating to farming; agricultural.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the country, as distinguished from a city or town; belonging to or characteristic of the country.
  • Pertaining to agriculture or farming: as, rural economy.
  • Living in the country; rustic.
  • Synonyms Rural, Rustic, Pastoral, Bucolic. Rural is always used in a good sense, and is applied chiefly to things: as, rural pleasures; rural scenery. Rustic is used in a good sense, but also has a sense implying a lack of the refinements of the town or city: as, rustic gallantry. Pastoral means belonging to a shepherd or his kind of life; bucolic, belonging to the care of cattle or to that kind of life. Pastoral is always used in a good sense; bucolic is now often used with a shade of contempt.
  • [Cowper applies rural to persons as well as things.]
  • noun A countryman; a rustic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the country, as distinguished from a city or town; living in the country; suitable for, or resembling, the country; rustic.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to agriculture.
  • adjective (Eccl.) See under Dean.
  • adjective (Eccl.) the state, office, or residence, of a rural dean.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective pertaining to less-populated, non-urban areas.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or relating to the countryside as opposed to the city
  • adjective living in or characteristic of farming or country life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rūrālis, from rūs, rūr-, country; see reuə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French rural < Latin rūrālis ("rural"), from rūs ("countryside") + -ālis.

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Examples

Comments

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  • I find this word so hard to pronounce sometimes, especially when you are speaking fast!

    March 29, 2007

  • You're not alone.

    May 23, 2010