metropolitan

Etymology

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

noun

1. (Orthodox Christianity) A bishop empowered to oversee other bishops; an archbishop.
   Yet from the late thirteenth century the metropolitan based himself either in Moscow or Vladimir-on-the-Kliazma, which was also in Muscovite territory, and it became the ambition of the Muscovites to make this arrangement permanent. 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 514
2. The inhabitant of a metropolis.

adj

1. (Orthodox Christianity) Pertaining to the see or province of a metropolitan.
2. Of, or pertaining to, a metropolis or other large urban settlement.
3. Of or pertaining to the parent state of a colony or territory, or the home country, e.g. metropolitan France
   Policies relating to the elimination of racial discrimination which obtain in metropolitan New Zealand are applicable in the Tokelau Islands. 1974, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Report on the Tokelau Islands, page 8
   the new political status of these islands marks a definite break with the traditional Dutch colonial practice to keep its Caribbean colonies at a distance; and, after 2010, Dutch metropolitan laws and dministrative practices started being implemented on the islands. 2015, Wouter Veenendaal, The Dutch Caribbean municipalities in comparative perspective. Island Studies Journal 10(1): 15–30