Word.ws English Dictionary

megapolitan

Syllables: me·ga·pol·i·tan/mɛɡəˈpɒlɪtən/US/mɛɡəˈpɑlɪtən/

megapolitan adjective: of or pertaining to a megapolis (“a very large city or urban complex”).

Adjective (1)

megapolitan (comparative more megapolitan, superlative most megapolitan)

  1. Of or pertaining to a megapolis (“a very large city or urban complex”).
    • Of the intellectual nature of Bosville, mention has been made already. It is, as we have seen, […] megapolitan, metropolitan, cosmopolitan,[…].1859 September, “Little Peddlington; otherwise Called Bosville”, in Timothy Flint, editor, The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume LIV, number 3 (number 633 overall), New York, N.Y....
    • Is the school culture, that child of nineteenth-century Protestant laissez faire and rural America, of an emerging and industrial and urban society and of an economy of scarcity, relevant to the multi-ethnic, multi-racial, and multi-religious post-industrial society of today, with its metropolitan...1974 April, Herbert J. Gans, “Mass Communications as an Educational Institution”, in Peter L. Klinge, editor, American Education in the Electric Age: New Perspectives on Media and Learning, Englewood...
    Synonyms:
    megalopolitan

Noun (1)

megapolitan (plural megapolitans)

  1. Synonym of megapolis.
    • With developments already planned, within 20 years Buckeye is expected to become a metropolis nearly as large as Phoenix. And Phoenix will be expanding east and south, too, creating a Phoenix/Tucson megapolitan. A total of such 10 megapolitans with urban and residential construction linking today's...2007, William F. Christopher, “The Viable System Model and Public and Environmental Responsibility”, in Holistic Management: Managing what Matters for Company Success, Hoboken, N.J....
    • In the United States, trans-metropolitan areas are referred to as megapolitans, large urban regions with physically interconnected metropolitan and micropolitan areas through transportation networks, constituting a functionally interdependent urban network[…].2011, Asli Ceylan Oner, “North American Cities in Globalization”, in Peter J[ames] Taylor, Pengfei Ni, Ben Derudder, Michael Hoyler, Jin Huang, Frank Witlox, editors, Global Urban Analysis: A Survey...
    Synonyms:
    megapolis
  2. An inhabitant of a megapolis.
    Synonyms:
    megalopolitan

Adjective (2) capitalized: Megapolitan

Megapolitan (not comparable)

  1. (Ancient Greece) Of, pertaining to, or from the ancient city of Megalopolis (now Megalopoli) in Greece.
    • At length he [Antigonus III Doson] assaulted with his right wing the position of Eucleidas; and, favoured by an error of that general, and a timely charge of Philopœmen with the Megapolitan cavalry, gained a complete victory.1860, “SELLASIA”, in [Thomas Stewart Traill], editor, The Encyclopædia Britannica, or Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, 8th edition, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, & Co., →OCLC...
    • The upshot is, we are guided by a party of shock-headed Arcadians, who are going in the direction of the excavations, and a Megapolitan boy who has probably an eye to gain.1902 January, H. R. James, “Art. V.—Across the Peloponnesus.”, in The Calcutta Review, volume CXIV, number CCXXVII, Calcutta: Printed & published by the City Press, […], Messrs. Thacker, Spink & Co....
    Synonyms:
    Megalopolitan

Noun (2) capitalized: Megapolitan

Megapolitan (plural Megapolitans)

  1. (Ancient Greece) An inhabitant of the ancient city of Megalopolis (now Megalopoli) in Greece.
    • The Megapolitans whoſe City did abide the ſiege, were compelled to pay as a fine for their rebellion twenty talents to the Athenians, and the Æolians.1670, Quintus Curtius Rufus, “The Sixth Book of Quintus Curtius. Of the Acts of Alexander the Great, King of Macedon.”, in Robert Codrington, transl., The Life and Death of Alexander the Great, King...
    • The Lacedæmonians, in Conjunction with the Phocenſes, make War with the Megapolitans, Thebans and Argives. After ſeveral Battles, in which both ſides are ſometimes ſucceſsful, and at other times unſucceſsful, a Truce is concluded between the Lacedæmonians and Megapolitans.1709, Lewis Ellis du Pin [i.e., Louis Ellies Dupin], “Sect. XXXV. An Abridgment of the History of the Time between Xerxes and Alexander the Great, Extracted from Diodorus Siculus. [Olympiad CVII. 1st...
    Synonyms:
    Megalopolitan

Examples of megapolitan in a sentence

  • The first step in creating megapolitan areas involved producing a map of the micropolitan and metropolitan counties.2009, Robert E. Lang, Arthur C. Nelson, “Megapolitan America: Defining and Applying a New Geography”, in Catherine L. Ross, editor...
  • And Phoenix will be expanding east and south, too, creating a Phoenix/Tucson megapolitan.2007, William F. Christopher, “The Viable System Model and Public and Environmental Responsibility”, in Holistic Management: Managing what...

Synonyms of megapolitan

Forms of megapolitan

Adjective
comparativemore megapolitan
superlativemost megapolitan
Noun
pluralmegapolitans
pluralMegapolitans

Origin of megapolitan

From megapolis + -itan; compare megalopolitan.

A variant of Megalopolitan; analysable as Megapolis + -itan. Megapolis is derived from Late Latin megapolis, from Ancient Greek μεγα- (mega-, “prefix meaning ‘large’”) + πόλις (pólis, “city”).

Questions about megapolitan

What does megapolitan mean?
Megapolitan means of or pertaining to a megapolis (“a very large city or urban complex”).
How do you use megapolitan in a sentence?
The first step in creating megapolitan areas involved producing a map of the micropolitan and metropolitan counties.
What part of speech is megapolitan?
Megapolitan can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce megapolitan?
Megapolitan is pronounced /mɛɡəˈpɒlɪtən/ (UK).

Words near megapolitan in the dictionary

  1. megapodiids
  2. megapods
  3. megapoleis
  4. megapolis
  5. megapolises
  6. megapolitan
  7. megapolitans
  8. megapolitical
  9. megapolitics
  10. megapop
  11. megapopular

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: megapolitan (page history and authors); Megapolitan (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-megapolitan.wav.

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