> I strongly suspect that if you polled random people, they would say something along the lines of b or c.
Yes they would. Absolutely. Which means that they clearly see it as being outskirts of a city or town, not the outskirts of an urban area. You even say so yourself. It is literally written as such.
> There are also exurbs, whose definition further drives home the point that it isn’t binary:
You did the same thing again: Outside a city, not outside of an urban area. Of course there are different community types within urban areas, just as there different community types within rural areas: e.g. hamlets, villages, small towns, it is even technically possible, albeit unusual, for a city to be rural! For example, Greenwood, British Columbia is both a city and rural.
Dude, take it from someone who is mildly autistic, and spent a very long time being staunchly prescriptivist: you’re being ridiculously pedantic, and no one cares.
If you don't care, why take time out of your day to formulate a message?
But, regardless, it is quite delusional to think that I would write for anyone but myself. Nobody is paying me to be here. It can only ever be for myself. As I care, that is more than satisfactory. It makes absolutely no difference what other people have to say about it. It was never for them.
> suburb (noun):
> a: an outlying part of a city or town
> b: a smaller community adjacent to or within commuting distance of a city
> c: suburbs plural : the residential area on the outskirts of a city or large town
I strongly suspect that if you polled random people, they would say something along the lines of b or c.
There are also exurbs, whose definition further drives home the point that it isn’t binary:
> a region or settlement that lies outside a city and usually beyond its suburbs and that often is inhabited chiefly by well-to-do families