metropolitan

- 6 dictionary results

met⋅ro⋅pol⋅i⋅tan

[me-truh-pol-i-tn]

–adjective

1.	of, noting, or characteristic of a metropolis or its inhabitants, esp. in culture, sophistication, or in accepting and combining a wide variety of people, ideas, etc.

2.	of or pertaining to a large city, its surrounding suburbs, and other neighboring communities: the New York metropolitan area.

3.	pertaining to or constituting a mother country.

4.	pertaining to an ecclesiastical metropolis.

–noun

5.	an inhabitant of a metropolis.

6.	a person who has the sophistication, fashionable taste, or other habits and manners associated with those who live in a metropolis.

7.	Eastern Church. the head of an ecclesiastical province.

8.	an archbishop in the Church of England.

9.	Roman Catholic Church. an archbishop who has authority over one or more suffragan sees.

10.	(in ancient Greece) a citizen of the mother city or parent state of a colony.

Origin:
1300–50; ME < LL mētropolītānus of, belonging to a metropolis < Gk mētropol

t(ēs) (see metropolis, -ite ¹ ) + L -ānus -an

Related forms:

met⋅ro⋅pol⋅i⋅tan⋅ism, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To metropolitan

met·ro·pol·i·tan (mět'rə-pŏl'ĭ-tən)

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a major city: crowded metropolitan streets; a metropolitan newspaper.
2. Of or constituting a large city or urbanized area, including adjacent suburbs and towns: the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area; a metropolitan county.
Of, relating to, or constituting the home territory of an imperial or colonial state.
Of or relating to an ecclesiastical metropolitan.

A citizen of a metropolis, especially one who displays urbane characteristics, attitudes, and values.
1. In the Western Christian churches, a bishop with provincial powers, with some authority over suffragan bishops.
2. Eastern Orthodox Church A bishop who is head of an ecclesiastical province and ranks next below the patriarch.

[Middle English, of a metropolitan bishop, from Late Latin mētropolītānus, metropolitan, from Greek mētropolītēs, citizen of a metropolis, from mētropolis, mother city; see metropolis.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Metropolitan

Met`ro*pol"i*tan\ (?; 277), a. [L. metropolitanus: cf. F. m['e]tropolitain.]

1. Of or pertaining to the capital or principal city of a country; as, metropolitan luxury.

2. (Eccl.) Of, pertaining to, or designating, a metropolitan or the presiding bishop of a country or province, his office, or his dignity; as, metropolitan authority. "Bishops metropolitan." --Sir T. More.

Metropolitan

Met`ro*pol"i*tan\, n. [LL. metropolitanus.]

1. The superior or presiding bishop of a country or province.

2. (Lat. Church.) An archbishop.

3. (Gr. Church) A bishop whose see is civil metropolis. His rank is intermediate between that of an archbishop and a patriarch. --Hook.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : metropolitan

Spanish: metropolitano,

German: hauptstädtisch,

Japanese: 大都市の

More Translations »

metropolitan

1432, as a noun, "bishop having oversight of other bishops," from L.L. metropolitanus, from Gk. metropolis "mother city" (from which others have been colonized), from meter "mother" + polis "city" (see policy (1)). In Gk., "parent state of a colony;" later, "see of a metropolitan bishop." In the West, the position now roughly corresponds to archbishop, but in the Gk. church it ranks above it. In Eng., the adj. sense of "belonging to an ecclesiastical metropolis" is from 1548; that of "belonging to a chief or capital city" is from 1555. In ref. to underground city railways, it is attested from 1867.

metropolitan

in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican churches, the head of an ecclesiastical province. Originally, a metropolitan was a bishop of the Christian Church who resided in the chief city, or metropolis, of a civil province of the Roman Empire and, for ecclesiastical purposes, administered a territorial area coextensive with a civil province. The first known use of the title in church conciliar documents was at the Council of Nicaea in 325, which definitely established the metropolitan in the organization of the church

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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