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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

metropolis.

The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.

10 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/mɪˈtɹɒp.ə.lɪs/Received-Pronunciation/məˈtɹɑp.ə.lɪs/General-American
  1. The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.

  2. A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.

  3. The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.

  4. A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) + πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”). By surface analysis, metro- + -polis. Doublet of metropole.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.