metropolis
/mətˈɹɒpələs/muh-TRO-puh-luhs
/mətˈɹɑpələs/muh-TRAH-puh-luhs
Meaninga mother city
Common meaning: a large capital city
- metra motherLiddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1883), p. 964 (approximate) · scan
- pola city, a citizen communityLiddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1883), p. 1240 · scan
- isGreek noun ending marking an act or process
‘a mother’ + ‘a city, a citizen community’ → metropolis
Journey through time
- metr — Greek μήτηρ, μητρός “a mother” (path traced)
- pol — Greek πόλις “a city, a citizen community” (path traced)
Parts join in Latin as metropolitanus.
- Greekμήτηρ, μητρός + πόλις‘a mother + a city, a citizen community’
- Latinmetropolitanus
- Englishmetropolis‘a large capital city’ · today
pol also in: policyacropolisimpoliticnecropolisnonpolitical
Sources & notes
Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.
Pronunciation
- UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
- No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
- US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
- No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.
Origin: Built on Greek μήτηρ ‘a mother’ + Greek πόλις ‘a city, a citizen community’.
Did you know: our wording, based on Liddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon (1883), entry πόλις, p. 1240 · dictionary scan
Roots
- μήτηρ, μητρός Greek “a mother”
- πόλις Greek “a city, a citizen community”
Related words
Building blocks are an automatic split · open in app