cosmopolitan
Americanadjective
-
free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world.
- Synonyms:
- worldly, urbane, sophisticated
- Antonyms:
- parochial, provincial
-
of or characteristic of a cosmopolite.
-
belonging to all the world; not limited to just one part of the world.
-
Botany, Zoology. widely distributed over the globe.
noun
-
cosmopolitans
plural
-
a person who is free from local, provincial, or national bias or attachment; citizen of the world; cosmopolite.
-
a cocktail made with vodka, cranberry juice, an orange-flavored liqueur, and lime juice.
noun
adjective
-
having interest in or familiar with many parts of the world
-
sophisticated or urbane
-
composed of people or elements from all parts of the world or from many different spheres
-
(of plants or animals) widely distributed
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cosmopolitan
First recorded in 1835–45; cosmopolite + -an
Explanation
Your Aunt Eleanor, who's lived in six different countries and speaks four languages fluently, might be described as cosmopolitan, or comfortable and familiar with different cultures and people. People who are cosmopolitan have an air of glamour surrounding them, a sense that they've seen a lot of the world and are sophisticated and at ease with all different kinds of people. Places can also be described as cosmopolitan, meaning "diverse," or bustling with lots of people of varying nationalities. Any way you use it, cosmopolitan implies a sophistication, which might explain why both a well-known alcoholic cocktail and a famous women's magazine are both named after the word cosmopolitan.
Vocabulary lists containing cosmopolitan
Elements of the Universe: Cosm, Cosmo ("Universe")
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Born a Crime
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"Marriage is a Private Affair" by Chinua Achebe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
For example, common genetic variants associated with openness to experience were linked to a greater likelihood that someone would move to a more cosmopolitan neighborhood.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026
He develops a reputation for aggression, seemingly fighting a war against everyone on the asphalt that spins out when he attempts to bully a cosmopolitan French driver into submission.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Now the dream has turned into a nightmare for many in the cosmopolitan oasis who have given their lives and fortunes to foster "human unity in diversity" and "the transformation of consciousness".
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
His dual nationality and peripatetic, bi-cultural upbringing, combined with travel grants in 1927 and 1949 that took him all over Europe, Asia and North Africa, produced arguably the most cosmopolitan artist of his generation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
It is probably here that the word cosmopolitan realized its true meaning—citizen, not just of a nation, but of the Cosmos.*
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
We’re a diverse people but still a people, not a random aggregation of cosmopolitans.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
In nearly every episode the ladies gather at a restaurant to dissect whatever issues are bedeviling them that week, a device "Sex and the City" employed with enough success to make brunch and cosmopolitans fashionable.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2022
On the Grand Princess, crowds formed at the buffets, grills and pizzerias; drinkers lifted cosmopolitans and lemontinis at the bars; the new plague multiplied invisibly among passengers and crew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 23, 2020
Some antifederalists were locally distinguished members of the “better sort” who feared that more distant cosmopolitans would somehow displace them under the new order.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018
Through The Mecca I saw that we were, in our own segregated body politic, cosmopolitans.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
