as in cities
a thickly settled, highly populated area
a big, teeming metropolis where ambitious people from all over come to make their mark
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Recent Examples of metropolises
There's something about being in a bustling new city far away from home—and some metropolises seem to have more of a magnetic draw for tourists than others.
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Taryn White, Travel + Leisure, 7 Jan. 2026
Created by and starring Rachel Sennott, the series began at the top of November and follows a group of 20-somethings navigating their careers and social lives in one of America’s most challenging metropolises.
—Mikey O'Connell, HollywoodReporter, 21 Nov. 2025
So instead of a chronicle of the absolute best cities, think of this as a starting point, the beginning of a bucket list of architecturally and geographically mesmerizing metropolises.
—Marco Morello, Architectural Digest, 13 Nov. 2025
Southern metropolises such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Charlotte expanded rapidly.
—Vann R. Newkirk Ii, The Atlantic, 10 Nov. 2025
The big story 31-year-old Aarushi Kilawat is a fashion entrepreneur from India's Jaipur, a small city with less than 5 million residents — a far cry from Indian metropolises like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
—Priyanka Salve, CNBC, 30 Oct. 2025
Millennia from now, will urban legends describe the horrific disaster that destroyed the string of American metropolises along the Pacific coast, from Chief Seattle’s Town to the City of Angels?
—Literary Hub, 22 Oct. 2025
Jia founded the Pingyao International Film Festival in his home province of Shanxi, choosing the ancient city over modern metropolises like Beijing or Shanghai.
—Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 28 Sep. 2025
But Gorman also cautioned that even if the bold ideas put forth by Musk and Bezos are realized fully, with bustling metropolises constructed among the stars, humanity will eventually need to look back toward home.
—Jackie Wattles, CNN Money, 12 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for metropolises
Noun
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The Trust for Public Land releases a yearly ranking of major cities in the US based on their residents’ access to public recreation areas – the city of Los Angeles ranks an embarrassing 90th, highlighting that access is undoubtedly a concern.—
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Either way, the horrifying consequences are sure to continue as ICE’s brutal crackdown on American cities rolls ahead.—
Noun
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Safety and health worries have long surrounded landfills in many cities and towns in the Philippines, especially ones near poor communities whose residents scavenge for junk and leftover food in the garbage heaps, the AP points out.—
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Local mountain towns bank on the cold-weather months to generate the bulk of their business for the year, and snow is the key ingredient to a successful winter season.—
Cite this Entry
“Metropolises.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/metropolises. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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