megalopolis

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American Heritage Dictionary:

meg·a·lop·o·lis

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(mĕg'ə-lŏp'ə-lĭs) pronunciation also me·gap·o·lis (mĭ-găp'ə-lĭs, mĕ-)
n.
  1. A very large city.
  2. A region made up of several large cities and their surrounding areas in sufficient proximity to be considered a single urban complex.

[MEGALO- + Greek polis, city.]

megalopolistic meg'a·lop·o·lis'tic adj.
megalopolitan meg'a·lo·pol'i·tan (-lō-pŏl'ĭ-tən) adj.


Ancient city, central Peloponnese, Greece. Occupying both banks of the Helisson River, it was founded in 371368 by Epaminondas of Thebes as the seat of the Arcadian League. Attacked several times by Sparta, it joined the Achaean League in 234 . It declined rapidly after being plundered by Cleomenes III of Sparta in 223 , and by the 2nd century it lay in ruins. The nearby modern town lies in a rich lignite-bearing region that fuels thermal power stations.

For more information on Megalopolis, visit Britannica.com.

Very large urban region formed of a metropolis that has far outgrown itself and swallowed many towns and villages, or a series of metropoleis that have joined up (e.g. the urban sprawl between Washington, DC and NYC).

Bibliography

  • Eldredge (ed.) (1967)
  • L. Mumford (1938, 1946, 1961)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Megalopolis (Gk. hē megalē polis, ‘the big city’), city in Arcadia founded between 369 and 362 BC by Epaminondas, the Theban general, after his victory over the Spartans at Leuctra (371). It was founded to be the capital of the Arcadian League and was one of the largest cities in the Peloponnese; Plato is said to have been invited by Epaminondas to draw up the constitution and code of laws, but to have declined. In the fourth century BC it always took the side of Macedon. In 234 it joined the Achaean Confederacy, but was subdued and its inhabitants expelled by Sparta under Cleomenes III. The city was restored by Philopoemen, the general of the Confederacy, after he had defeated the Spartans at Sellasia (222). It was the birthplace of Philopoemen and the historian Polybius.


[Ge]

The ‘city of all cities’ in ancient Greece; used in modern times to refer to very large conurbations.

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megalopolis (mĕgəlŏp'lĭs) [Gr.,=great city], a group of densely populated metropolitan areas that combine to form an urban complex. It was first used in its modern sense by Jean Gottman (1957) to describe the huge urban area along the eastern seaboard of the United States from Boston to Washington, D.C. According to Gottman, it resulted from changes in work and social habits.


(meg-uh-lop-uh-lis)

A vast stretch of developed industrial urban area, such as the East Coast of the United States from Boston to Washington, D.C., or the Ruhr Valley in Germany. Megalopolis is from Greek words meaning “great city.”

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'megalopolis'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to megalopolis, see:

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Megalopolis (Greek for large city, great city) may refer to:


Translations:

Megalopolis

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kæmpestor by, millionby, storbylivsform

Nederlands (Dutch)
megalopolis, miljoenenstad, stedelijk gebied (stad en omgeving)

Français (French)
n. - mégalopole

Deutsch (German)
n. - Millionenstadt

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μεγαλούπολη

Italiano (Italian)
megalopoli

Português (Portuguese)
n. - megalópole (f)

Русский (Russian)
очень большой город

Español (Spanish)
n. - megalópolis

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - miljonstad

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
巨大都市, 人口稠密地带

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 巨大都市, 人口稠密地帶

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 거대도시

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - メガロポリス, 巨大都市

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مدينه كبرى‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮גוש עירוני גדול, קרית-על‬


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Arcadia (region of ancient Greece)
Damophon (art)