metropolis

A major city, especially the chief city of a country or region.

A city or an urban area regarded as the center of a specific activity.

The chief see of a metropolitan bishop.

The mother city or country of an overseas colony, especially in ancient Greece.

In ancient Greece, the mother city or parent state of a colony, as Corinth of Corcyra and Syracuse, or Phocæa of Massalia (Marseilles), the colony being independent, but usually maintaining close relations with the metropolis.

Later, a chief city; a seat of government; in the early church, the see or chief city of an ecclesiastical province.

In modern usage: Specifically, the see or seat of a metropolitan bishop.

The capital city or seat of government of a country, as London, Paris, or Washington

A chief city; a city holding the first rank in any respect, within a certain territorial range: as, New York is the commercial metropolis of the United States.

In zoögeog. and botany, the place of most numerous representation of a species by individuals, or of a genus by species; the focus of a generic area. See generic.