metropolis

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A major city, especially the chief city of a country or region: Chicago, the metropolis of the Midwest.
2. n. A city or an urban area regarded as the center of a specific activity: a great cultural metropolis.
3. n. Ecclesiastical The chief see of a metropolitan bishop.
4. n. The mother city or country of an overseas colony, especially in ancient Greece.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. In ancient Greece, the mother city or parent state of a colony, as Corinth of Corcyra and Syracuse, or Phocæa of Massalia (Marseilles), the colony being independent, but usually maintaining close relations with the metropolis.
2. n. Later, a chief city; a seat of government; in the early church, the see or chief city of an ecclesiastical province.
3. n. In modern usage: Specifically, the see or seat of a metropolitan bishop.
4. n. The capital city or seat of government of a country, as London, Paris, or Washington
5. n. A chief city; a city holding the first rank in any respect, within a certain territorial range: as, New York is the commercial metropolis of the United States.
6. n. In zoögeog. and botany, the place of most numerous representation of a species by individuals, or of a genus by species; the focus of a generic area. See generic.

Wiktionary

1. n. history The mother (founding) polis (city state) of a colony, especially in the Ancient Greek/Hellenistic world.
2. n. A large, busy city, especially as the main city in an area or country or as distinguished from surrounding rural areas.
3. n. canon law The see of a metropolitan archbishop, ranking above its suffragan diocesan bishops.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The mother city; the chief city of a kingdom, state, or country.
2. n. (Eccl.) The seat, or see, of the metropolitan, or highest church dignitary.
3. n. Any large city.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. people living in a large densely populated municipality
2. n. a large and densely populated urban area; may include several independent administrative districts