Metropolitan

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /mÉ›tɹəˈpÉ’lɪtÉ™n/
• US IPA: /mÉ›tɹɵˈpÉ‘lɨtÉ™n/

Alternative forms

• metropolitan bishop

Origin

From Late Latin metropolitanus, from Ancient Greek μητροπολίτης.

Full definition of metropolitan

Noun

1. (Christianity) A bishop empowered to oversee other bishops; an archbishop. from 14th c.
• 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 514:Yet from the late thirteenth century the metropolitan based himself either in Moscow or Vladimir-on-the-Kliazma, which was also in Muscovite territory, and it became the ambition of the Muscovites to make this arrangement permanent.
2. The inhabitant of a metropolis. from 18th c.

Adjective

1. (Christianity) Pertaining to the see or province of a metropolitan. from 15th c.
2. Of, or pertaining to, a metropolis or other large urban settlement. from 16th c.