metropolis

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, mother city), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, mother) + πόλις (pólis, city (state)).[1] By surface analysis, metro- +‎ -polis. Doublet of metropole.

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: me‧tro‧po‧lis
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /mɪˈtɹɒp.ə.lɪs/[1]
  • (General American) IPA(key): /məˈtɹɑp.ə.lɪs/[2]
    • Audio (US):(file)
  • (Indic) IPA(key): /mɛʈ.ro.po.lɪs/

Noun

metropolis (plural metropolises or metropoleis or metropoles or metropolizes or metropoli or (obsolete) metropolisses or (obsolete) metropolis's)

  1. (history, especially Ancient Greece) The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.
    Synonyms: mother city, metropole
    • 2010, James Mahoney, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective:
      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. A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.
    Synonym: metropolitan city
    Hyponyms: megacity, megalopolis
    Holonym: metropolitan area
    Coordinate term: capital city
    • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rural Life in England:
      An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting.
    • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52:
      [I]t would not be very much less absurd for someone to write about New York City after having spent only a few years or a few decades in this metropolis of inexhaustible adventure, of terrifying emotional fecundity, of uncapturable character.
    • 1983, “Sleeper in Metropolis”, in Changing Places, performed by Anne Clark:
      Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition
    • 2008, “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”, performed by Flight of the Conchords:
      They call me the Hiphopopotamus / Flows that glow like phosphorous / Popping off the top of this esophagus / Rocking this metropolis
  3. (Orthodox Christianity) The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.
    Synonym: archbishopric
  4. (ecology) A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
  2. ^ metropolis”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, mother city).

Pronunciation

  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: me‧tro‧po‧lis

Noun

metropolis f (plural metropolissen, diminutive metropolisje n)

  1. metropolis

Synonyms

  • metropoliet
  • metropolitaans

Indonesian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, mother city).

Pronunciation

  • (Standard Indonesian) IPA(key): /mɛtroˈpolis/ [mɛ.t̪roˈpo.lɪs]
  • Rhymes: -olis
  • Syllabification: me‧tro‧po‧lis

Noun

metropolis (plural metropolis-metropolis)

  1. (history, especially Ancient Greece) metropolis (colony’s mother city)
  2. (urban studies) metropolis (large, busy city)
  3. (Orthodox Christianity) metropolis (see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops)

Derived terms

Further reading

Latin

Etymology

  • From Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, a mother city or state), from μητρο- (mētro-, mother-) + πόλις (pólis, city).

    Pronunciation

    Noun

    mētropolis f (genitive mētropolis or mētropoleōs or mētropolios); third declension

    1. (Late Latin) metropolis

    Declension

    Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem).

    singular plural
    nominative mētropolis mētropolēs
    mētropoleis
    genitive mētropolis
    mētropoleōs
    mētropolios
    mētropolium
    dative mētropolī mētropolibus
    accusative mētropolim
    mētropolin
    mētropolem1
    mētropolēs
    mētropolīs
    ablative mētropolī
    mētropole
    mētropolibus
    vocative mētropolis
    mētropoli
    mētropolēs
    mētropoleis

    1Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin. The accusative singular mētropolem and the ablative singular mētropole occur in Medieval and New Latin.

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    See also

    References

    • metropolis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
    • metropolis”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 974.
    • "metropolis", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
    • metropolis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
    • metropolis”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
    • metropolis”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
      colonia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

    Middle English

    Noun

    metropolis

    1. plural of metropol

    Serbo-Croatian

    Noun

    metròpolis m inan (Cyrillic spelling метро̀полис)

    1. A metropolis

    Declension

    Declension of metropolis
    singular plural
    nominative metropolis metropolisi
    genitive metropolisa metropolisa
    dative metropolisu metropolisima
    accusative metropolis metropolise
    vocative metropolise metropolisi
    locative metropolisu metropolisima
    instrumental metropolisom metropolisima