metroplex

M3E1T1R1O1P3L1E1X8

noun

A large metropolitan area containing several cities and their suburbs.

“Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex”

Less commonScrabble 20

Meanings

nounmetroplex (plural metroplexes)

plural metroplexes

  1. USurban studiesA large metropolitan area containing several cities and their suburbs.

    Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex

    1 more example

    The collection of small urban centers and the multinucleated metropolitan subcenters is the twenty-first-century metroplex that provides citizens with opportunities to develop different lifestyles in new environmental settings. In the metroplex the new arrivals do not have to abandon their careers or interests.

    1984, Jack Meltzer, Metropolis to Metroplex: The Social and Spatial Planning of Cities, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 14

Origin

Blend of metropolitan + complex, originally coined as a marketing term for the Dallas–Fort Worth conurbation.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

metroplex. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metroplex

MLA

“metroplex.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metroplex. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “metroplex,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metroplex.

Source: metroplex on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.