Wiktionary

metropolis

See also: Metropolis, métropolis, metrópolis, and metròpolis

English edit

Etymology edit

From Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) + πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”).[1] Doublet of metropole.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

metropolis (plural metropolises or metropoleis or metropoles or metropolizes or metropoli or (obsolete) metropolisses or (obsolete) metropolis's)

  1. (history, especially Ancient Greece) The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony.
    Synonyms: mother city, metropole
    • 2010, James Mahoney, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective:
      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. A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.
    Coordinate term: capital city
    • 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rural Life in England:
      An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting.
    • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52:
      [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.
    • 1983, “Sleeper in Metropolis”, in Changing Places, performed by Anne Clark:
      Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition
    • 2008, “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros”, performed by Flight of the Conchords:
      They call me the Hiphopopotamus / Flows that glow like phosphorous / Popping off the top of this esophagus / Rocking this metropolis
  3. (Orthodox Christianity) The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.
    Synonym: archbishopric
  4. (ecology) A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.

Derived terms edit

Derived terms

Related terms edit

Related terms

Translations edit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References edit

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Concise Oxford English Dictionary [Eleventh Edition]
  2. ^ “metropolis”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Anagrams edit

Dutch edit

Etymology edit

From Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”).

Pronunciation edit

  • Audio(file)
  • Hyphenation: me‧tro‧po‧lis

Noun edit

metropolis f (plural metropolissen, diminutive metropolisje n)

  1. metropolis

Synonyms edit

Related terms edit

Latin edit

Etymology edit

Late Latin, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “a mother city or state”), from μητρο- (mētro-, “mother-”) + πόλις (pólis, “city”).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

mētropolis f (genitive mētropolis or mētropoleōs or mētropolios); third declension

  1. metropolis

Declension edit

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative mētropolis mētropolēs
mētropoleis
Genitive mētropolis
mētropoleōs
mētropolios 		mētropolium
Dative mētropolī mētropolibus
Accusative mētropolim
mētropolin
mētropolem1 		mētropolēs
mētropolīs
Ablative mētropolī
mētropole 		mētropolibus
Vocative mētropolis
mētropoli 		mētropolēs
mētropoleis

1Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin. The accusative singular mētropolem and the ablative singular mētropole occur in Medieval and New Latin.

Derived terms edit

Related terms edit

Descendants edit

See also edit

References edit

  • “metropolis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • metropolis in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 974.
  • metropolis in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • “metropolis”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “metropolis”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
  • “metropolis”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
    “colonia”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Middle English edit

Noun edit

metropolis

  1. plural of metropol

Serbo-Croatian edit

Noun edit

metròpolis m (Cyrillic spelling метро̀полис)

  1. A metropolis

Declension edit

Declension of metropolis
singular plural
nominative metropolis metropolisi
genitive metropolisa metropolisa
dative metropolisu metropolisima
accusative metropolis metropolise
vocative metropolise metropolisi
locative metropolisu metropolisima
instrumental metropolisom metropolisima
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