online medical dictionary | definition of ghetto

1. The Jews' quarter in an Italian town or city. "I went to the Ghetto, where the Jews dwell." (Evelyn)

2. By extension, any section of a town inhabited predominantly by members of a specific ethnic, national or racial group, such segregation usually arising from social or economic pressure.

3. (fig) any isolated group of people.

4. (fig) any group isolated by external pressures, with an implication of inferiority.

Origin: It.

(13 Jul 1998)