cosmopolitan Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a sophisticated person who has travelled in many countries
    cosmopolite.
  2. adjective growing or occurring in many parts of the world
    widely distributed.
    • a cosmopolitan herb
    • cosmopolitan in distribution
  3. adjective 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
  4. adjective satellite of worldwide scope or applicability
    worldwide; universal; ecumenical; general; oecumenical; world-wide.
    • an issue of cosmopolitan import
    • the shrewdest political and ecumenical comment of our time"- Christopher Morley
    • universal experience

WordNet

Cos`mo*pol"i*tan, Cos*mop"o*lite noun (Also<
  • Cosmopolitan
  • Cosmopolite
)
Etymology
Gr. the world + citizen, city: cf. F. cosmopolitain, cosmopolite.
Definitions
  1. One who has no fixed residence, or who is at home in every place; a citizen of the world.
Cos`mo*pol"i*tan, Cos*mop"o*lite adjective (Also<
  • Cosmopolitan
  • Cosmopolite
)
Definitions
  1. Having no fixed residence; at home in any place; free from local attachments or prejudices; not provincial; liberal.
    In other countries taste is perphaps too exclusively national, in Germany it is certainly too cosmopolite. Sir W. Hamilton.
  2. Common everywhere; widely spread; found in all parts of the world.
    The Cheiroptera are cosmopolitan. R. Owen.

Webster 1913