metropolitan

[me-truh-pol-i-tn]

adjective

1. 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.

2. of or relating to a large city, its surrounding suburbs, and other neighboring communities.

   the New York metropolitan area.

3. pertaining to or constituting a mother country.

4. pertaining to an ecclesiastical metropolis.

noun

1. an inhabitant of a metropolis.

2. a person who has the sophistication, fashionable taste, or other habits and manners associated with those who live in a metropolis.

3. Eastern Church.,  the head of an ecclesiastical province.

4. an archbishop in the Church of England.

5. Roman Catholic Church.,  an archbishop who has authority over one or more suffragan sees.

6. (in ancient Greece) a citizen of the mother city or parent state of a colony.

metropolitan

/ ˌmɛtrəˈpɒlɪtən /

adjective

1. of or characteristic of a metropolis

2. constituting a city and its suburbs

   the metropolitan area

3. of, relating to, or designating an ecclesiastical metropolis

4. of or belonging to the home territories of a country, as opposed to overseas territories

   metropolitan France

noun

1. 1. Eastern Churches the head of an ecclesiastical province, ranking between archbishop and patriarch

   2. Church of England an archbishop

   3. RC Church an archbishop or bishop having authority in certain matters over the dioceses in his province

Other Word Forms

• metropolitanism noun
• intermetropolitan adjective
• nonmetropolitan adjective
• supermetropolitan adjective
• unmetropolitan adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of metropolitan¹

1300–50; Middle English < Late Latin mētropolītānus of, belonging to a metropolis < Greek mētropolī́t ( ēs ) ( metropolis, -ite ¹ ) + Latin -ānus -an

Example Sentences

News changed its computing method and shifted from using data based on metropolitan area to city-based data.

Read more on MarketWatch

The latest inflation print for the Tokyo metropolitan area—an early indicator of nationwide trends—showed a key gauge of price growth remained above the BOJ’s target.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

New Delhi and its sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million people are regularly ranked among the world's most polluted capitals, with acrid smog blanketing the skyline each winter.

Read more on Barron's

Among the 50 most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S., cancellations were most common in Tampa, San Antonio and Atlanta.

Read more on MarketWatch

As baseball’s only Canadian franchise, the Blue Jays have the opportunity to generate revenue not from a single metropolitan area, but from an entire nation with a population of more than 40 million people.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• cosmopolitan 
• urban 
• urbane