1. the capital or chief city of a country or region: "he preferred the peaceful life of the countryside to the bustle of the metropolis"Similarcapital (city)chief townstate/regional/provincial capitalcounty towncounty boroughadministrative center
▪ a very large and densely populated industrial and commercial city:"by the late eighteenth century Edo had grown to a metropolis with a population of nearly one million"Similarbig cityconurbationmegalopolisurban sprawlconcrete jungleinformal:big smokearchaic:wen
Word Originlate Middle English (denoting the see of a metropolitan bishop): via late Latin from Greek mētropolis ‘mother state’, from mētēr, mētr- ‘mother’ + polis ‘city’.
