metropolis

Etymology

First attested in Middle English: from Late Latin mētropolis, from Ancient Greek μητρόπολις (mētrópolis, “mother city”), from μήτηρ (mḗtēr, “mother”) + πόλις (pólis, “city (state)”). Doublet of metropole.

noun

1. (history, especially Ancient Greece) 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. 2010, James Mahoney, Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective
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
   An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. 1819, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book, Rural Life in England
   [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. 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 52
   Love is dead in metropolis / All contact through glove or partition 1983, “Sleeper in Metropolis”, in Changing Places, performed by Anne Clark
3. (Orthodox Christianity) The see of a metropolitan bishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.
4. (ecology) A generic focus in the distribution of plants or animals.