Meaning
slums, underworld
- shallow water, shoal (in maritime navigation)
- squalid, impoverished, and crime-ridden urban area (almost always in the plural: i bassifondi)
In a sentence
Il detective conosceva molto bene i bassifondi della metropoli.
The detective knew the city's slums very well.
Molti film polizieschi sono ambientati nei bassifondi della città.
Many crime movies are set in the city's underworld.
La barca si è incagliata in un bassofondo vicino alla costa.
The boat ran aground on a shoal near the coast.
Word forms (2)
| Word | Word forms |
|---|---|
| bassofondo | masculine · singular |
| bassifondi | masculine · plural |
Usage notes
- In the urban/social sense ('slums', 'underworld'), it is used almost exclusively in the plural 'bassifondi'.
- Compound noun where both elements pluralize: 'bassifondi'.
- plural bassifondi