Link Centre Dictionary

cosmopolitan

cos·mo·po·litan

UK/ˌkɒz.məˈpɒl.ɪ.tən/ US/ˌkɑz.məˈpɑl.ɪ.tən/ uncommon dated us

adjective

1.

growing or occurring in many parts of the world

  • “a cosmopolitan herb”
  • “cosmopolitan in distribution”
Antonyms
2.

composed of people from or at home in many parts of the world; especially not provincial in attitudes or interests

  • “his cosmopolitan benevolence impartially extended to all races and to all creeds” T.B. Macaulay
  • “the ancient and cosmopolitan societies of Syria and Egypt”
  • “that queer, cosmopolitan, rather sinister crowd found around the Marseilles docks”
3.

of worldwide scope or applicability

  • “an issue of cosmopolitan import”
  • “the shrewdest political and ecumenical comment of our time” Christopher Morley
  • “universal experience”

noun

1.

a sophisticated person who has travelled in many countries

Synonyms

Origin

From cosmopolit(e) + -an. Compare metropolitan and megalopolitan.

Phrases

  • rootless cosmopolitan

Related words

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.