ghetto vs wretched

ghetto

adj
  • Unseemly and indecorous or of low quality; cheap; shabby, crude. 

  • Having been raised in a ghetto in the United States. 

  • Characteristic of the style, speech, or behavior of residents of a predominantly black or other ghetto in the United States. 

  • Of or relating to a ghetto or to ghettos in general. 

verb
  • To confine (a specified group of people) to a ghetto. 

noun
  • An (often walled) area of a city in which Jews are concentrated by force and law. (Used particularly of areas in medieval Italy and in Nazi-controlled Europe.) 

  • An area in which people who are distinguished by sharing something other than ethnicity concentrate or are concentrated. 

  • An (often impoverished) area of a city inhabited predominantly by members of a specific nationality, ethnicity, or race. 

  • An isolated, self-contained, segregated subsection, area or field of interest; often of minority or specialist interest. 

wretched

adj
  • Of an inferior or unworthy nature or social status; contemptible, lowly. 

  • Of a person, etc.: behaving in a manner deserving contempt; base, despicable, wicked. 

  • Of weather: causing much discomfort; very unpleasant; miserable. 

  • Characterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable. 

  • Of an insignificant, mean, or poor nature; miserable, paltry, worthless. 

  • Used to express annoyance towards or dislike of someone or something: bloody, damned. 

How often have the words ghetto and wretched occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )