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cosmopolitan

Your Aunt Eleanor, who's lived in six different countries and speaks four languages fluently, might be described as cosmopolitan, or comfortable and familiar with different cultures and people.

People who are cosmopolitan have an air of glamour surrounding them, a sense that they've seen a lot of the world and are sophisticated and at ease with all different kinds of people. Places can also be described as cosmopolitan, meaning "diverse," or bustling with lots of people of varying nationalities. Any way you use it, cosmopolitan implies a sophistication, which might explain why both a well-known alcoholic cocktail and a famous women's magazine are both named after the word cosmopolitan.

DEFINITIONS OF: cosmopolitan

1

adj 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”
Synonyms
traveled, travelled
familiar with many parts of the world
Antonyms:
provincial
characteristic of the provinces or their people
bumpkinly, hick, rustic, unsophisticated
awkwardly simple and provincial
corn-fed
strong and healthy but not sophisticated
insular, parochial
narrowly restricted in outlook or scope
jerkwater, one-horse, pokey, poky
small and remote and insignificant
stay-at-home
not given to travel
show more antonyms...

adj of worldwide scope or applicability

“an issue of cosmopolitan import”
Synonyms:
ecumenical, general, oecumenical, universal, world-wide, worldwide
comprehensive
including all or everything

adj growing or occurring in many parts of the world

“a cosmopolitan herb”
cosmopolitan in distribution”
Synonyms:
widely distributed
Antonyms:
endemic
native to or confined to a certain region

n a sophisticated person who has travelled in many countries

Synonyms:
cosmopolite
Types:
globetrotter, world traveler
someone who travels widely and often
Type of:
man of the world, sophisticate
a worldly-wise person
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