Metropole

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈmÉ›tɹəpəʊl/
• US IPA: /ˈmÉ›tɹəpoÊŠl/

Origin

From Middle French metropole ("town with bishop's seat"), from Latin mētropolis.

Full definition of metropole

Noun

1. A metropolis; the main city of a country or area. from 15th c.
2. The parent-state of a colony. from 19th c.
• 2007, Bruce Ackerman, ‘Meritocracy v. Democracy’, London Review of Books 29:5, p. 9:Though the metropole remained confident in its Westminster ways, its newly independent colonies imposed constitutional constraints on the powers of parliament.
• 2007, John Darwin, After Tamerlane, Penguin 2008, p. 63:As Europe's population growth and commercial activity slowed down after 1620, its thirst for Spanish-American silver slackened: metropole and colony were drifting apart.
3. (now rare) A bishop's see. from 19th c.