as in city
a thickly settled, highly populated area
such modern megacities as São Paulo and Mexico City
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of megacity
While Lagos dominates headlines as a megacity of 17 million, secondary cities such as Benin are quietly becoming engines of economic activity, innovation and migration.
—
Amir Daftari, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
While there are high-speed trains to Istanbul from other parts of Turkey, the easiest way to get there is to fly, as you’ll be deposited right in the heart of this sprawling megacity.
—Katie Nadworny, Travel + Leisure, 8 Nov. 2025
The Yidan Center, by Zaha Hadid Architects, is located in Shenzhen and forms part of a burgeoning cultural quarter in the Chinese megacity.
—New Atlas, 5 Nov. 2025
Going Off-Grid in Japan’s Uncrowded, Otherworldly Gotō Islands The 150-plus-island archipelago has drawn megacity transplants seeking a more relaxed pace of life in tune with the rhythms of nature.
—Melinda Joe, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for megacity
Amir Daftari, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
While there are high-speed trains to Istanbul from other parts of Turkey, the easiest way to get there is to fly, as you’ll be deposited right in the heart of this sprawling megacity.
—Katie Nadworny, Travel + Leisure, 8 Nov. 2025
The Yidan Center, by Zaha Hadid Architects, is located in Shenzhen and forms part of a burgeoning cultural quarter in the Chinese megacity.
—New Atlas, 5 Nov. 2025
Going Off-Grid in Japan’s Uncrowded, Otherworldly Gotō Islands The 150-plus-island archipelago has drawn megacity transplants seeking a more relaxed pace of life in tune with the rhythms of nature.
—Melinda Joe, Condé Nast Traveler, 31 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for megacity
Recent Examples of Synonyms for megacity
Noun
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To close out a busy Day 2, the Steelers selected a mauling guard with a mullet, who will come to a city where that haircut never went out of style.—
Mike DeFabo,
New York Times,
27 Apr. 2026
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Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of former President Islam Karimov, is behind bars in Uzbekistan as the trial opens in a Swiss federal criminal court in the southern city of Bellinzona.—
Jamey Keaten,
Fortune,
27 Apr. 2026
Noun
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From Atlantic beaches to Western mountains to central metropolises, there’s a destination suited to every type of traveler.—
Tara Massouleh McCay,
Southern Living,
26 Apr. 2026
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Viewed from certain perspectives—the perspective of history, the perspective of the roughly one quarter of the world that was once colonized by Britain—London is a metropolis built on crime.—
Mark O’Connell,
The New York Review of Books,
25 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The story is set in 2013, in a town in an unnamed New England state.—
Cressida Leyshon,
New Yorker,
26 Apr. 2026
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Boasting 37 miles of pure electric power, the NX450h+ certainly succeeds for consumers looking to float around town.—
Marc D Grasso,
Hartford Courant,
25 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Megacity.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/megacity. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.
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