Wiktionary

metropolis

See also: Metropolis, métropolis, metrópolis, and metròpolis

English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”).[1] By surface analysis, metro- ‎ -polis. Doublet of metropole.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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metropolis (plural metropolises or metropoleis or metropoles or metropolizes or metropoli or (obsolete) metropolisses or (obsolete) metropolis's)

  1. (history, especially Ancient Greece) The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.
    Synonyms: mother city, metropole
    • 2010, James Mahoney, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective:
      Colonies certainly did not become "clones" of their metropolises, but it is equally false that their colonial heritages were not influenced by the organization of the metropolises.
  2. A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.
    Synonym: metropolitan city
    Hyponyms: megacity, megalopolis
    Holonym: metropolitan area
    Coordinate term: capital city
    • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rural Life in England:
      An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting.
    • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52:
      [I]t would not be very much less absurd for someone to write about New York City after having spent only a few years or a few decades in this metropolis of inexhaustible adventure, of terrifying emotional fecundity, of uncapturable character.
    • 1983, “Sleeper in Metropolis”, in Changing Places, performed by Anne Clark:
      Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition
    • 2008, “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”, performed by Flight of the Conchords:
      They call me the Hiphopopotamus / Flows that glow like phosphorous / Popping off the top of this esophagus / Rocking this metropolis
  3. (Orthodox Christianity) The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.
    Synonym: archbishopric
  4. (ecology) A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.

Derived terms

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Derived terms
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Related terms

Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
  2. ^ “metropolis”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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From Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”).

Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: me‧tro‧po‧lis

Noun

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metropolis f (plural metropolissen, diminutive metropolisje n)

  1. metropolis

Synonyms

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Latin

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Etymology

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Late Latin, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “a mother city or state”), from μητρο- (mētro-, “mother-”) πόλις (pólis, “city”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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mētropolis f (genitive mētropolis or mētropoleōs or mētropolios); third declension

  1. metropolis

Declension

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Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

singular plural
nominative mētropolis mētropolēs
mētropoleis
genitive mētropolis
mētropoleōs
mētropolios 		mētropolium
dative mētropolī mētropolibus
accusative mētropolim
mētropolin
mētropolem1 		mētropolēs
mētropolīs
ablative mētropolī
mētropole 		mētropolibus
vocative mētropolis
mētropoli 		mētropolēs
mētropoleis

1Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin. The accusative singular mētropolem and the ablative singular mētropole occur in Medieval and New Latin.

Derived terms

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Descendants

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See also

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References

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  • “metropolis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • metropolis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 974.
  • metropolis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • “metropolis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “metropolis”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
  • “metropolis”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
    “colonia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Middle English

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Noun

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metropolis

  1. plural of metropol

Serbo-Croatian

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Noun

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metròpolis m (Cyrillic spelling метро̀полис)

  1. A metropolis

Declension

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Declension of metropolis
singular plural
nominative metropolis metropolisi
genitive metropolisa metropolisa
dative metropolisu metropolisima
accusative metropolis metropolise
vocative metropolise metropolisi
locative metropolisu metropolisima
instrumental metropolisom metropolisima
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