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
- intermetropolitan adjective
- metropolitanism noun
- nonmetropolitan adjective
- supermetropolitan adjective
- unmetropolitan adjective
Etymology
Origin of metropolitan
1300–50; Middle English < Late Latin mētropolītānus of, belonging to a metropolis < Greek mētropolī́t ( ēs ) ( metropolis, -ite 1 ) + Latin -ānus -an
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.
"Running around on these things in densely packed metropolitan areas? It would be mental."
From BBC • Apr. 3, 2026
The Hartford metropolitan area, with a population of 1.2 million, is the most cutthroat home buying market in the U.S., according to Zillow’s 2026 ranking.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
Of the nation’s 10 fastest-growing metropolitan areas in 2025, nine had more homes for sale than before the pandemic, a Barron’s analysis of Realtor.com and government data suggest.
From Barron's • Mar. 30, 2026
But the scale of the demonstrations — stretching from major international metropolitan hubs to small towns in rural America — signals a level of mobilization that is increasingly difficult to ignore.
From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026
“Nearly half of the members of the metropolitan bar earned less than the minimum subsistence level for American families,” Jerold Auerbach writes of the Depression years in New York.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
