ecumenopolis
/ˌɛkjuːmɛˈnɒpəlɪs/
ecumenopolis means the global conurbation predicted and advocated by Constantinos Doxiadis.
ecumenopolis is pronounced /ˌɛkjuːmɛˈnɒpəlɪs/.
Why “ecumenopolis” is a great word
A planet-spanning city, a single continuous urban fabric enveloping the entire habitable surface of a world. Coined in 1967 by Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis from the Ancient Greek οἰκουμένη (oikouménē, "the inhabited world") and πόλις (pólis, "city"). Unlike "megalopolis," which denotes a gargantuan but still regional cluster of conjoined cities, or "ecumene," which is merely the geographical idea of the civilized world, an ecumenopolis is architecture made absolute. It is the glow of streetlights where forests once stood, the hum of machinery replacing the wind, and the horizon everywhere broken by the curve of habitation rather than the sky—the final, seamless enclosure of humanity within a structure of its own making, where home becomes no longer a place but a condition.
Etymology
Coined by Constantinos Apostolou Doxiadis in 1967 from the Ancient Greek words οἰκουμένη (oikouménē, “the world”) + πόλις (pólis, “city”), “a city spanning the whole world”.
name
- The global conurbation predicted and advocated by Constantinos Doxiadis.
noun
- The largest theoretical human settlement, a planetwide conurbation.
- A city spanning an entire planet or large moon.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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