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

Derived Forms

• ˌmetroˈpolitanism, noun

Other Words From

• metro·poli·tan·ism noun
• inter·metro·poli·tan adjective
• nonmet·ro·poli·tan adjective noun
• super·metro·poli·tan adjective
• unmet·ro·poli·tan 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

He has previously served with the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command within the Metropolitan Police.

From BBC

This ushered in a wave of reforms, including the expansion of the officer candidate pool, which had previously been limited to members of the Metropolitan Division.

From Los Angeles Times

Gold said another key question is how the city’s project at the Hyperion plant in Playa Del Rey will fit with the Metropolitan Water District’s separate plan for another recycling facility in Carson, called Pure Water Southern California.

From Los Angeles Times

To help cover the cost of the new construction, the city has secured more than $400 million from the state and federal governments and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

From Los Angeles Times

Perhaps, then, the story about big cities softening up on Trump reflects not the salience of place and an attention to local governance, but a decline of those things, and a regression of the metropolitan voter toward the national mean.

From Slate

Related Words

• cosmopolitan
• urban
• urbane