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n. 1. A major city, especially the chief city of a country or region: Chicago, the metropolis of the Midwest. 2. A city or an urban area regarded as the center of a specific activity: a great cultural metropolis. 3. Ecclesiastical The chief see of a metropolitan bishop. 4. The mother city or country of an overseas colony, especially in ancient Greece. [Middle English metropol, from Late Latin mētropolis, mother-city, from Greek : mētēr, mētr-, mother; see māter- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots + polis, city; see pelə-3 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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