Meaning & use
metropolis
Last updated
A very large, busy city that is often the capital or most important city of a region or country.
See it in a sentence
Tokyo is a sprawling metropolis of nearly 14 million people.
The novel is set in a fictional metropolis inspired by 1920s New York.
A note on using this word
Originally a Greek word meaning 'mother city' — the central city from which colonies were founded; today it simply denotes a major urban center.
Words with a similar meaning
citymegacity
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Words with an opposite meaning
villagehamlet
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