megalopolis

noun

meg·​a·​lop·​o·​lis ˌme-gə-ˈlä-pə-ləs 

1

: a very large city

2

: a thickly populated region centering in a metropolis or embracing several metropolises

megalopolitan

ˌme-gə-lō-ˈpä-lə-tən 

noun or adjective

Did you know?

A "large city" named Megalopolis was founded in Greece in 371 B.C. to help defend the region called Arcadia against the city-state of Sparta. Though a stadium seating 20,000 was built there, indicating the city's impressive size for its time, Megalopolis today has only about 5,000 people. Social scientists now identify 10 megalopolises in the U.S., each with more than 10 million people. The one on the eastern seaboard that stretches from Boston to Washington, D.C., where the densely populated cities seem to flow into each other all along the coast, is now home to over 50 million people. But it's easily surpassed by the Japanese megalopolis that includes Tokyo, with more than 80 million inhabitants.

Synonyms

• asphalt jungle
• burg
• city
• cosmopolis
• megacity
• metropolis
• municipality
• town

Examples of megalopolis in a Sentence

what was once a series of discrete towns interspersed with countryside is now one vast megalopolis

Recent Examples on the Web

Reef-building corals—the engineers of myriad underwater structures—create maritime megalopolises dense with crevices and hidey-holes for fish and other sea creatures. —Fanni Szakal, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 June 2024

In the post-Soviet period, both cities had evolved into European megalopolises. —Michael Kimmage, Foreign Affairs, 19 June 2023

The integration of cutting-edge technology with the daily physical world arguably makes perfect sense, given how China’s population is increasingly centered on a chain of megalopolises and urbanized regions. —Brian Bremner, Bloomberg.com, 27 Oct. 2021

The prevalence of remote work has led many real estate developers in megalopolises like New York City, where office vacancy rates are at all-time highs, to retool their buildings. —Phil Wahba, Fortune, 21 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1828, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

megalopolis

noun

meg·​a·​lop·​o·​lis ˌmeg-ə-ˈläp-ə-ləs 

1

: a very large city

2

: a thickly populated region centering in a large city or including several large cities