cosmopolitan

American  

[koz-muh-pol-i-tn] / ˌkɒz məˈpɒl ɪ tn /

adjective

1. free from local, provincial, or national ideas, prejudices, or attachments; at home all over the world.

   Synonyms:

   worldly, urbane, sophisticated

   Antonyms:

   parochial, provincial

2. of or characteristic of a cosmopolite.

3. belonging to all the world; not limited to just one part of the world.

4. Botany, Zoology. widely distributed over the globe.

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noun

cosmopolitans plural

1. a person who is free from local, provincial, or national bias or attachment; citizen of the world; cosmopolite.

2. a cocktail made with vodka, cranberry juice, an orange-flavored liqueur, and lime juice.

cosmopolitan British  

/ ˌkɒzməˈpɒlɪtən /

noun

1. a person who has lived and travelled in many countries, esp one who is free of national prejudices

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adjective

1. having interest in or familiar with many parts of the world

2. sophisticated or urbane

3. composed of people or elements from all parts of the world or from many different spheres

4. (of plants or animals) widely distributed

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cosmopolitanism
  noun
• noncosmopolitan
  adjective
• uncosmopolitan
  adjective
• cosmopolitanly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cosmopolitans
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cosmopolitan cosmopolitans

But her perspective is internet-era cosmopolitan; young but preternaturally wise about self-reliance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026

In 1941, the cosmopolitan soulmates wed in Mexico City.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

It is now a sophisticated, cosmopolitan hub with gleaming Cartier boutiques, avant-garde art installations and luxury districts dotted with Michelin-star restaurants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

Ralf Rangnick's team will bring a touch of cosmopolitan sophistication to this summer's tournament in a marbled away shirt that's been designed as a nod to the country's cafe culture.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026

Perhaps this was the result of growing up in Muscatine with a cosmopolitan mother who’d always urged her son to live “as if for eternity.”

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

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

The song resonated not just among jazz-loving cosmopolitans, but across the country.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2021

Localists and cosmopolitans clashed repeatedly over economic policy, beginning with the question of Loyalist property.

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

Related Words

• cultured
• metropolitan
• sophisticated
• urbane
• worldly