metropolis

noun

1. 1

   The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.

   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. 2

   A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.

   Holonym: metropolitan area

   An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting.

   [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.

   Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition

3. 3

   The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.

4. 4

   A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.

Forms

plural

metropolises, metropoleis, metropoles, metropolizes, metropoli, metropolisses