What does metropolitanize mean?
Metropolitanize means to make a place metropolitan, meaning that it develops the population, character, infrastructure, or urban form associated with a metropolis. The verb can be used transitively, as when planners seek to metropolitanize a district, or intransitively to describe a settlement undergoing rapid urban growth. It is most common in technical and academic writing about cities, although ordinary speakers are more likely to use forms such as urbanize or the noun metropolitanization. The word distinguishes the transformation of a place into a large urban center from merely describing something that is already metropolitan. It is also useful when emphasizing a visible process of urban development rather than simply labeling an area as urban. British English generally uses the spelling metropolitanise, while American English uses metropolitanize.
verbTo make a place metropolitan by giving it the character, scale, or infrastructure associated with a metropolis. It may also be used intransitively to describe a place developing into a metropolis.
- To cause a place to become metropolitan.
- To develop the character or infrastructure of a metropolis.
"Rapid investment in transit helped metropolitanize the rapidly expanding region."
"New transport links have helped metropolitanize the once-suburban district."
"The town metropolitanized rapidly as industry expanded around it."
Metropolitanize names the process by which a settlement acquires the scale, character, and infrastructure of a metropolis.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does metropolitanize come from?
The word is formed from metropolitan plus the suffix -ize. Metropolitan ultimately comes through Latin from the Greek metropolis, a term meaning “mother city,” and metropolitanization developed later as a scholarly expression for the growth of metropolitan areas. The same Greek root also underlies metropolis and several related words concerning cities and their inhabitants.
Related word forms
How metropolitanize is actually used
This is a relatively uncommon verb, chiefly found in urban studies, geography, and planning contexts. In British English, it is usually spelled metropolitanise; metropolitanize is the standard American spelling. The related noun metropolitanization is more common than the verb itself.
Easily confused with metropolitanize
In British spelling, the same verb is written metropolitanise, with s rather than z.