metropolitan

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
metropolitan/metrəˈpɒlɪtən/

▶adjective

• 1 relating to or denoting a metropolis.

• 2 relating to or denoting the parent state of a colony.

• 3 Christian Church relating to or denoting a metropolitan or his see.

▶noun

• 1 an inhabitant of a metropolis.

• 2 Christian Church a bishop having authority over the bishops of a province, in particular (in Orthodox Churches) one ranking above archbishop and below patriarch.

– origin ME (in the ecclesiastical sense): from late L. metropolitanus, from Gk mētropolitēs ‘citizen of a mother state’, from mētropolis (see metropolis).