cos·mo·pol·i·tan
ˌkäz-mə-ˈpä-lə-tən 
1
: having wide international sophistication : worldly
Greater cultural diversity has led to a more cosmopolitan attitude among the town's younger generations.
2
: composed of persons, constituents, or elements from all or many parts of the world
a city with a cosmopolitan population
3
: having worldwide rather than limited or provincial scope or bearing
… his cosmopolitan benevolence, impartially extended to all races and to all creeds.—
Thomas Babington Macaulay
Thomas Babington Macaulay4
: found in most parts of the world and under varied ecological conditions
a cosmopolitan herb
1
: cosmopolite
Many cosmopolitans around the world now also share the English language …—Robert J. Shiller
Robert J. Shiller2
or less commonly cosmo
: a cocktail made of vodka, orange-flavored liqueur, lime juice, and cranberry juice
Did you know?
Defining Cosmopolitan (Not the Drink)
Since cosmopolitan includes the root polit-, from the Greek word for "citizen", someone who is cosmopolitan is a "citizen of the world". She may be able to read the morning paper in Rio de Janeiro, attend a lecture in Madrid, and assist at a refugee camp in Uganda with equal ease—and maybe all in the same week. And a city or a country that is cosmopolitan has aspects and elements that come from various countries.
Examples of cosmopolitan in a Sentence
Adjective
Greater cultural diversity has led to a more cosmopolitan attitude among the town's younger generations.
the cosmopolitan taste of the store's customers
It's one of the country's more cosmopolitan cities.
Noun
as someone who had lived in Paris for a year as an exchange student, she seemed very much the cosmopolitan to her old classmates
Recent Examples on the Web
Sofia Celeste, Footwear News, 21 Oct. 2025
Cultured, cosmopolitan, generally liberal, the Dohnányis and the Bonhoeffers represented the best of the German-speaking bourgeois tradition.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2025
Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
The adjective cosmopolitan only begins to describe Sajet, who has had important life experiences on four continents.
—Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 5 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cosmopolitan
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Adjective
Traders, artists and thinkers from Europe and the Middle East passed through here, and that constant exchange shaped a culture that’s curious, adaptable and deeply cosmopolitan.
—Sofia Celeste, Footwear News, 21 Oct. 2025
Cultured, cosmopolitan, generally liberal, the Dohnányis and the Bonhoeffers represented the best of the German-speaking bourgeois tradition.
—Alex Ross, New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2025
Noun
Alas, Jewish skeptics of Zionism who preferred to think of themselves as cosmopolitans found no reprieve.
—Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025
The adjective cosmopolitan only begins to describe Sajet, who has had important life experiences on four continents.
—Jim Higgins, jsonline.com, 5 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for cosmopolitan
Cite this Entry
“Cosmopolitan.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmopolitan. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
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