Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Relating to or characteristic of a large, important city, often the capital: Describes something connected to a major urban center, its culture, or its typical features.
   • Relating to the home country or mother state in a colonial context: Pertaining to the parent state of a colony.

2. Noun:

   • A person who lives in a metropolis: An inhabitant of a large, densely populated city.
   • In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a high-ranking bishop: A title for a bishop with authority over a province, ranking between a bishop and a patriarch, equivalent to an archbishop in Western Christianity.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • The metropolitan area includes the city and its surrounding suburbs.
  • She enjoys the fast-paced metropolitan lifestyle.

• Noun:

  • As a lifelong metropolitan, he was unused to the quiet of the countryside.
  • The Metropolitan presided over the dioceses in the ecclesiastical province.

Advanced Usage

• "Metropolitan area": A major city together with its suburbs and nearby towns, forming a continuous economic and social region.

  • The New York metropolitan area is one of the most populous in the world.

• "Metropolitan bishop": Specifically refers to the bishop holding the rank of metropolitan in Eastern Christianity.

  • The decision required the approval of the metropolitan bishop.

Variants and Related Words

• Metropolis (n): A very large and densely populated industrial and commercial city; the capital or chief city of a country or region.

  • London is a global metropolis.

• Metropolitanize (v): To make metropolitan in character.

  • The region began to metropolitanize rapidly.

Synonyms

• Adjective: Urban, city, civic, municipal.
• Noun: City-dweller, urbanite.

Related Phrases

• Metropolitan county: A type of county-level administrative division in England, centered on a major urban area.

  • Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county.

• Metropolitan police: The police force serving a metropolitan area, especially (capitalized) the police force of London.

  • He joined the Metropolitan Police.

Related Idioms

• Metropolitan elite: A term, often used critically, to describe a perceived socially liberal, wealthy, and influential class concentrated in major cities.
  • The policy was criticized as being favored only by the metropolitan elite.

Adjective

1. relating to or characteristic of a metropolis
   • metropolitan area

Noun

1. a person who lives in a metropolis
2. in the Eastern Orthodox Church this title is given to a position between bishop and patriarch; equivalent to archbishop in western Christianity