cosmopolite
/kɑzˈmɑpəˌlaɪt/
cosmopolite noun: one who is at home in every place; a citizen of the world; a cosmopolitan person.
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Noun
cosmopolite (plural cosmopolites)
- One who is at home in every place; a citizen of the world; a cosmopolitan person.
- First drink a health, this solemn night, / A health to England, every guest: / That man’s the best cosmopolite / Who loves his native country best.1852, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Hands All Round
- Prince Gortschakoff has spoken of the elements of disturbance and the revolutionary cosmopolites of Europe, and has asked France and England and Austria to repress their activity. Well, my Lords, no doubt as carrion birds are drawn by instinct to the battle-field, so, wherever there is disturbance...1863 May 8, Lord John Russell, Hansard, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2019
- Synonyms:
- cosmopolitan, anywhere
- The butterfly painted lady (Vanessa cardui).
- The painted lady butterfly […] has been seen around towns throughout North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and Africa. It's known on every continent except Antarctica, and it's even found on islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. […] Not surprisingly, the painted lady is known...1989, May Berenbaum, chapter 5, in Ninety-nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, page 102
- Synonyms:
- cosmopolitan
- A plant found more or less everywhere in the world.
Adjective
cosmopolite (comparative more cosmopolite, superlative most cosmopolite)
- Of or relating to cosmopolites; cosmopolitan.
- International necessities are rapidly breaking down old prejudices and conservatisms, while developing cosmopolite feeling.1921, Lafcadio Hearn, Karma and Other Stories and Essays, London: George G. Harrap & Co, page 166
- The cosmopolite glitter of the Ballets Russes enjoyed considerable compass—a transoceanic range that quickly credentialed both the composer and the choreographer.2002, Charles M. Joseph, Stravinsky and Balanchine: A Journey of Invention, Yale University Press, page 34
- Oriented, exposed to or open to ideas and influences outside one's own social system or group.
- There was no middle course for Richard's comrades between high friendship or absolute slavery. He was deficient in those cosmopolite habits and feelings which enable boys and men to hold together without caring much for each other; and, like every insulated mortal, he attributed the deficiency, of...1859, George Meredith, chapter 15, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
- Early adopters tend to be better educated, enjoy higher social status, occupy positions in organizations of greater size and resources, consume higher levels of information from mass media communications, and are more cosmopolite than their later adopting counterparts. An individual or organization...2008, Jennifer L. Sumner, Healthcare Communication Networks: The Dissemination of Employee Information for Hospital Security, Doctoral dissertation, University of Central Florida, Orlando, published...
- Distributed throughout the world; having a wide geographical distribution.
- If, however, we consider the Australian dingo as a native animal, we might class the genus Canis as cosmopolite, but the wild dogs of South America are now formed into separate genera by some naturalists.1881, Alfred Russell Wallace, Island Life, or, the Phenomena and Causes of Insular Faunas and Floras, Including a Revision and Attempted Solution of the Problem of Geological Climates, New York...
- Both species could be labelled as the most cosmopolite as they appear in 100% of the sampling spots, both indoors and outdoors.1987, F. Infante, E. Ruiz de Clavijo, C. Galán and G. Gallego, "Occurrence of Alternaria Nees ex Fr. in indoor and outdoor habitats in Cordoba (Spain)" in G. Boehm and R.M. Leuschner (eds.), Advances...
cosmopolite meaning in Arabic
cosmopolite in Arabic
- cosmopolitan person
- مُوَاطِن اَلْعَالَم muwāṭin al-ʕālam
Examples of cosmopolite in a sentence
- Prince Gortschakoff has spoken of the elements of disturbance and the revolutionary cosmopolites of Europe, and has asked France and England and Austria to repress their activity.1863 May 8, Lord John Russell, Hansard, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2019:
- The wild goose is more of a cosmopolite than we; he breaks his fast in Canada, takes a luncheon in the Ohio, and plumes himself for the night in a southern bayou.1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter XVIII, in Walden, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, published 1910, page 422:
- The campaign against the "rootless cosmopolites" was in full swing […]1986, Joseph Brodsky, “In a Room and a Half”, in Less Than One: Selected Essays, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, page 469:
- It's known on every continent except Antarctica, and it's even found on islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. […] Not surprisingly, the painted lady is known in some circles as the cosmopolite.1989, May Berenbaum, chapter 5, in Ninety-nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, page 102:
Synonyms of cosmopolite
Forms of cosmopolite
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cosmopolites |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more cosmopolite |
| superlative | most cosmopolite |
Origin of cosmopolite
Borrowed from French cosmopolite, from Latin cosmopolītēs, itself borrowed from Koine Greek κοσμοπολίτης (kosmopolítēs, “citizen of the world”), from Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “world”) + πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”).
Words formed from cosmopolite
Questions about cosmopolite
- What does cosmopolite mean?
- Cosmopolite means one who is at home in every place; a citizen of the world; a cosmopolitan person.
- What is cosmopolite in Arabic?
- Cosmopolite in Arabic is مُوَاطِن اَلْعَالَم (muwāṭin al-ʕālam). See Cosmopolite meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use cosmopolite in a sentence?
- Prince Gortschakoff has spoken of the elements of disturbance and the revolutionary cosmopolites of Europe, and has asked France and England and Austria to repress their activity.
- What part of speech is cosmopolite?
- Cosmopolite can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce cosmopolite?
- Cosmopolite is pronounced /kɑzˈmɑpəˌlaɪt/.
- What is the plural of cosmopolite?
- The plural of cosmopolite is cosmopolites.
Words near cosmopolite in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cosmopolite (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cosmopolite.wav.
Cite this entry: “cosmopolite.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cosmopolite. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.