metropolis

noun

me·​trop·​o·​lis mə-ˈträ-p(ə-)ləs 

1

: the chief or capital city of a country, state, or region

2

: the city or state of origin of a colony (as of ancient Greece)

3

a

: a city regarded as a center of a specified activity

an industrial metropolis

a cattle metropolis

b

: a large important city

one of Europe's great metropolises

Synonyms of metropolis

• city
• town

Examples of metropolis in a Sentence

a big, teeming metropolis where ambitious people from all over come to make their mark

Recent Examples on the Web

The small city of Sausalito, California, promises a Mediterranean escape minutes from one of the nation’s biggest metropolises, San Francisco. —Cu Fleshman, Travel + Leisure, 10 Mar. 2026

The fighting has grounded regional air traffic, threatened desalination facilities that provide drinking water to millions and undermined the safe reputation of modern metropolises such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi. —Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2026

Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE are, for all practical purposes, completely dependent on the desalination plants, particularly for metropolises such as Dubai. —Javier Blas, Twin Cities, 9 Mar. 2026

And so, Below the Clouds begins with Pliny the Younger’s contemporaneous description of the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but intercuts the images of ruin with glimpses of the modern metropolis. —Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Late Latin, from Greek mētropolis, from mētr-, mētēr mother + polis city — more at mother, police entry 1

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for metropolis

• acropolis
• monopolise
• necropolis
• megalopolis
• propolis

Kids Definition

metropolis

noun

me·​trop·​o·​lis mə-ˈträp-(ə-)ləs 

1

: the chief or capital city of a country, state, or region

2

: a large important city