relating to a large city and the areas surrounding it, or having the characteristics of a cosmopolitan urban area.
From Greek 'meter' (mother) and 'polis' (city), originally meaning the mother city of a colony. In ancient times, a metropolis was the main city that established other settlements. The meaning evolved to describe any major urban center and its culture.
The 'mother city' origin is poetic—ancient Greece saw major cities as literally the mothers of their colonies, and we still use this word 500 years later to describe the bustling heart of modern civilization!
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