metropolitan
Americanadjective
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of, noting, or characteristic of a metropolis or its inhabitants, especially in culture, sophistication, or in accepting and combining a wide variety of people, ideas, etc.
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of or relating to a large city, its surrounding suburbs, and other neighboring communities.
the New York metropolitan area.
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pertaining to or constituting a mother country.
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pertaining to an ecclesiastical metropolis.
noun
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an inhabitant of a metropolis.
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a person who has the sophistication, fashionable taste, or other habits and manners associated with those who live in a metropolis.
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Eastern Church. the head of an ecclesiastical province.
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an archbishop in the Church of England.
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Roman Catholic Church. an archbishop who has authority over one or more suffragan sees.
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(in ancient Greece) a citizen of the mother city or parent state of a colony.
adjective
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of or characteristic of a metropolis
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constituting a city and its suburbs
the metropolitan area
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of, relating to, or designating an ecclesiastical metropolis
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of or belonging to the home territories of a country, as opposed to overseas territories
metropolitan France
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of metropolitan
1300–50; Middle English < Late Latin mētropolītānus of, belonging to a metropolis < Greek mētropolī́t ( ēs ) ( see metropolis, -ite 1) + Latin -ānus -an
Explanation
The adjective metropolitan describes something that's characteristic of a city. You really enjoy metropolitan life — there's always something happening, and you can walk or take the subway anywhere you want to go. The word metropolitan comes from metropolis, which in Greek means mother city, made up of mētēr meaning mother, and polis meaning city. A person who lives in a metropolis, or city, is also called a metropolitan. You may have loved cities even when you were growing up in the suburbs, looking forward to the day you could become a true metropolitan in the biggest city you could find.
Vocabulary lists containing metropolitan
Southeast Asia - Introductory
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Southeast Asia - Middle School
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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.
The Department of Homeland Security called the undertaking the “largest DHS operation ever” earlier this year on X, with an estimated 2,000 agents deployed to the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2026
The party took 26% of the vote, which translates to 47 out of 158 seats in the metropolitan legislature.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
If both systems ruptured within a short period, multiple major metropolitan areas could be dealing with severe damage at nearly the same time.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
The smaller Newark, N.J., metropolitan division is a grouping within the larger metro area.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Mr. Larson’s wife was active in the Chicago teachers’ union, and each elementary, junior high, and high school in the metropolitan area received a copy of the press release about the hearing and the charges.
From "The Landry News" by Andrew Clements
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.
