Word.ws English Dictionary

ecumenopolis

UK/ˌɛkjuːmɛˈnɒpəlɪs/

ecumenopolis noun: the largest theoretical human settlement, a planetwide conurbation.

ecumenopolis: the largest theoretical human settlement, a planetwide conurbation
Image: Dark Attsios / Cody escouade delta, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

ecumenopolis (plural ecumenopolises or ecumenopoleis or ecumenopoli)

  1. The largest theoretical human settlement, a planetwide conurbation.
  2. A city spanning an entire planet or large moon.

Proper noun capitalized: Ecumenopolis

Ecumenopolis

  1. The global conurbation predicted and advocated by Constantinos Doxiadis.

Forms of ecumenopolis

pluralecumenopolises
pluralecumenopoleis
pluralecumenopoli

Origin of ecumenopolis

From ecumene (“inhabited world”) + -polis (“city”). From use as a common noun of Ecumenopolis, applying the concept to diverse scenarios. Ultimately from Ancient Greek.

Coined by Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis in 1967 from the Ancient Greek words οἰκουμένη (oikouménē, “the world”) + πόλις (pólis, “city”), “a city spanning the whole world”.

Words formed from ecumenopolis

Questions about ecumenopolis

What does ecumenopolis mean?
Ecumenopolis means the largest theoretical human settlement, a planetwide conurbation.
What part of speech is ecumenopolis?
Ecumenopolis can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ecumenopolis?
Ecumenopolis is pronounced /ˌɛkjuːmɛˈnɒpəlɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of ecumenopolis?
The plural of ecumenopolis is ecumenopolises.

Words near ecumenopolis in the dictionary

  1. ecumenisms
  2. ecumenist
  3. ecumenists
  4. ecumenopoleis
  5. ecumenopoli
  6. ecumenopolis
  7. ecumenopolises
  8. ecumenopolitan
  9. ecumenopolitans
  10. ecurie
  11. ecuries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ecumenopolis (page history and authors); Ecumenopolis (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.

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Cite this entry: “ecumenopolis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ecumenopolis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.