Metropolitan

Metropolitan

Adjective / Noun · /ˌmɛt.rəˈpɒl.ɪ.tən/

Definition

(Adjective) relating to or characteristic of a metropolis or large city; covering or characteristic of a large city and its surrounding area; relating to a metropolitan area; (Noun) an inhabitant of a metropolis; in the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, a bishop who heads a province; a senior bishop.

Origin

From Late Latin metropolitanus (of a mother city, relating to a metropolitan bishop), from Greek mētropolitēs (inhabitant of a metropolis), from mētropolis (mother city, from mētēr, mother + polis, city). The ecclesiastical sense of a bishop of a chief see developed in early Christianity as the church adopted the administrative geography of the Roman Empire — the metropolitan bishop being the bishop of the provincial capital (metropolis).