Metropolis
name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.
"Colonies certainly did not become "clones" of their metropolises, but it is equally false that their colonial heritages were not influenced by the organization of the metropolises."
- 2 people living in a large densely populated municipality wordnet
- 3 A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.
"Holonym: metropolitan area"
- 4 a large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts wordnet
- 5 The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.
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- 6 A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.
- 1 A city, the county seat of Massac County, Illinois, United States.
- 2 Nickname for London: the capital city of the United Kingdom; the capital city of England, within Greater London. England, dated
"The journey from our town to the metropolis, was a journey of about five hours."
- 3 A ghost town in Elko County, Nevada, United States.
- 4 A classical city site in Anatolia (Turkey).
- 5 A fictional city serving as the primary setting for the Superman franchise, published by DC Comics.
"My city need a hero, so I treat it like Metropolis / And it's a few bad Lois Lanes I can't name"
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- 6 Nickname for New York City: a major city in New York, United States.
Example
More examples"A recent survey reveals that the population density in the metropolis is decreasing."
Etymology
Borrowed from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) + πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”). By surface analysis, metro- + -polis. Doublet of metropole.
See English metropolis.
Related phrases
More for "metropolis"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.