# metropolitan

Pronunciation: US say "met-ruh-PAH-li-tuhn" /ˌmɛtɹəˈpɑlɪtən/; say "met-ruh-POL-i-tuhn" UK /mɛtɹəˈpɒlɪtən/, AUS /ˌmetɹəˈpɔlɪtən/

## Adjective

1. Relating to a metropolis or to any other large city or urban area.
   - Simple: Having to do with a very big city.
   - _Housing prices across the metropolitan area have climbed faster than wages._
   - _The governor promised more transit funding for the state's metropolitan regions._
3. Relating to the home country of a state, as distinct from its colonies or overseas territories, as in metropolitan France.
   - Simple: Having to do with a country's home land, not the colonies or territories it rules.
   - _Residents of the overseas departments vote in the same elections as citizens of metropolitan France._
   - _Colonial officials were often paid more than civil servants doing the same work in metropolitan Britain._
5. Relating to the see or province of a metropolitan bishop.
   - Simple: Having to do with the church area led by a bishop who is in charge of other bishops.
   - _The dioceses of the region were grouped into a single metropolitan province._
   - _The pope raised the city's diocese to a metropolitan see in the nineteenth century._

## Noun

2. A senior bishop, equivalent to an archbishop, who has authority over other bishops.
   - Simple: A church leader who is in charge of other bishops, like an archbishop.
   - _The metropolitan called a council of the bishops under him to settle the dispute._
   - _The new metropolitan was enthroned in the cathedral before a crowd of clergy and worshipers._
4. A person who lives in a metropolis.
   - Simple: A person who lives in a very big city.
   - _A true metropolitan, he felt uneasy anywhere without subways and late-night cafés._
   - _The survey compared the commuting habits of metropolitans with those of small-town residents._

## Origin

From Late Latin metropolitanus, from Ancient Greek μητροπολίτης (mētropolítēs).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/metropolitan (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).