Welcome to the Financial Times Lexicon

Browse thousands of words and phrases selected by Financial Times editors and suggest new terms for the glossary.

 

Term of the day

smart growth

Smart growth is originally a US term incorporating the American English meaning of the word smart to imply intelligent. When smart growth principles are applied to planning, new urban developments are designed so that shops and schools and places of work are within walking, or bicycling, distance of one another. The idea is to prevent huge areas of urban sprawl that have marred the suburbs of many western cities and to create sustainable communities instead.

The European Commission borrowed the...

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