the underground electric railway of Paris, France, Montreal, Canada, Washington, D.C., and other cities.
(often initial capital letter) the government or jurisdiction of a large city.
1900–05; < French métro, short for chemin de fer métropolitain metropolitan railroad
First recorded in 1900–05; by shortening; or independent use of metro- 3
Combining form representing Greek métron measure
Combining form representing Greek mḗtra womb
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Investors poured in nearly $8 billion across 207 deals in the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Santa Ana metro areas, up 28% from a year earlier, according to PitchBook.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 10, 2026
San Francisco saw the biggest increase in pending luxury sales among the 50 most populous metro areas over the past year, Redfin found in its data.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 9, 2026
Kevin Grolig, a 59-year-old real-estate agent in the D.C. metro area, started noticing that his clients were delaying downsizing their homes because their adult children were still living there.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 5, 2026
Overall, that conservatively led to $106.1 million in lost wages for the metro, Sojourner estimates.
From Barron's • Jun. 25, 2026
You can’t tell the whole metro area our book is about Jackson!
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
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.
