word choice - Difference between "town", "city" and "metropolis"?


Is there a certain size for each of these terms?



Answer



Historically in the UK. A village had a church, a hamlet didn't, a town had a market and a city had to have a cathedral.


Now it's decided by various local authorities so there were some new cities created recently, while there are places with a population of only a few 1000 (village size) which are cities because they were important in the middle ages.


Metropolis isn't really used in the UK - except for London, hence Metropolitan police (London's police) or the Metropolitan line (tube)


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