megalopolis

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.]

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.

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.”

Tutor's tip: This word was used in the 2006 Scripps National Spelling Bee finals.

Look up megalopolis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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

• Megalopolis (city type), an extensive metropolitan area or a long chain of continuous metropolitan areas.
  • Jean Gottmann coined this term and later used it as the title of his 1961 book about the northeastern seaboard of the United States.
  • See also, Megacity, Agglomeration, or Ecumenopolis
• Megalopolis, Greece, now known as Megalópoli
• Aphrodisias, a small city in Caria, Asia Minor, previously named Megale Polis
• Doomed Megalopolis, an anime rendition of the Japanese literary epic Teito Monogatari

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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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