Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Metropolis

Metropolis , noun

[Latin metropolis, Greek {not transcribed}, prop., the mother city (in relation to colonies); {not transcribed} mother + {not transcribed} city. See Mother, and Police.]

1.
The mother city; the chief city of a kingdom, state, or country.
[Edinburgh] gray metropolis of the North. — Tennyson
2.
(Ecclesiastical) The seat, or see, of the metropolitan, or highest church dignitary.
The great metropolis and see of Rome. — Shakespeare
3.
Any large city.