This List of modern words formed from Greek polis recounts the use of the ancient Greek word polis to form modern names. The greatest modern use is in place names.

Derived common nouns
Derivatives of polis are common in many modern European languages. This is indicative of the influence of the polis-centred Hellenic world view. Derivative words in English include policy, polity, police, and politics. In Greek, words deriving from polis include politēs and politismos, whose exact equivalents in Latin, Romance, and other European languages, respectively civis ("citizen"), civilisatio ("civilisation"), etc., are similarly derived.

A number of other common nouns end in -polis. Most refer to a special kind of city or state. Examples include:
 Acropolis ("high city"), Athens, Greece – although not a city-polis by itself, but a fortified citadel that consisted of functional buildings and the Temple in honor of the city-sponsoring god or goddess. The Athenian acropolis was the most famous of all acropolises in the ancient Greek World and its main temple was the Parthenon, in honor of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). More generally, Acropolis has been used to describe the upper part of a polis, often a citadel or the site of major temples.
 Astropolis – a star-scaled city/industry area; a complex space station; a European star-related festival
 Cosmopolis – a large urban centre with a population of many different cultural backgrounds; a novel written by Don DeLillo
 Ecumenopolis – a city that covers an entire planet, usually seen in science fiction
 Megalopolis – created by the merging of several cities and their suburbs
 Metropolis – the mother city of a colony; the see of a metropolitan archbishop; a metropolitan area (major urban population centre)
 Necropolis ("city of the dead") – a graveyard
 Technopolis – a city with high-tech industry; a room of computers; the Internet

City names

City names with numbers
Others refer to part of a city or a group of cities, such as:

1. Polis, or Polis Chrysochous (), located on the northwest coast of Cyprus within the Paphos District and on the edge of the Akamas peninsula. During the Cypro-Classical period, Polis became one of the most important ancient Cypriot city-kingdoms on the island, with important commercial relations with the eastern Aegean Islands, Attica, and Corinth. The town is also well known due to its mythological history, including the site of the Baths of Aphrodite.

3. Tripolis – a group of three cities, retained in the names of Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli, Greece and Tripoli, Lebanon

4. Tetrapolis – a group of four cities

5. Pentapolis – a group of five cities

6. Hexapolis – a group of six cities

7. Heptapolis, Middle Egypt – a group of seven cities

8. Octapolis, in ancient Caria or Lycia – a group of eight cities

10. Decapolis, a group of ten cities in the Levant

12. Dodecapolis – a group of twelve cities

Descriptive city names
The names of several other towns and cities in Europe and the Middle East have contained the suffix -polis since antiquity or currently feature modernized spellings, such as -pol. Notable examples include:

 Adrianopolis or Adrianople ("Hadrian's city"), present-day Edirne, Turkey
 Alexandropol ("Alexandra's city"), currently Gyumri, Armenia
 Alexandroupolis ("Alexander's city"), Greece
 Antipolis ("the city across"), the former name for Antibes, France
 Constantinopolis or Constantinople ("Constantine's city"), capital of Byzantine Empire.
 Gallipoli (‘beautiful city’)
 Heliopolis (‘Sun city’) in ancient and modern Egypt, Lebanon, and Greece
 Heracleopolis ("Hercules' city"), Egypt
 Hermopolis ("Hermes' city"), several cities in Egypt and on Siros Island
 Hierakonpolis ("Hawk city"), Egypt
 Hieropolis ("Sacred city"), several cities in the Hellenistic world, in particular Hierapolis in southwestern Turkey
 Istanbul (derived from the Greek phrase "εἰς τὴν Πόλιν" meaning "to the city"), Turkey.
 Istropolis, currently Bratislava, Slovakia.
 Lithopolis ("Stone city"), Latin name for Kamnik, Slovenia
 Mariupol ("Marios' City"), Ukraine (Greek: Μαριούπολης, Marioupolis)
 Megalopolis ("Great city"), Greece
 Neapolis ("New city"), several, including the modern cities of Nablus and Naples (), and the adjective Neapolitan
 Nicopolis ("Victory city"), Emmaus in Israel
 Persepolis ("city of the Persians"), Iran
 Philippopolis ("Philip's city"), the former name for Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
 Seuthopolis ("Seuthes' city"), Bulgaria
 Sevastopol ("Venerable city"), Crimea, Ukraine
 Simferopol ("city of common good"), Crimea, Ukraine
 Sozopol ("Salvaged city"), Bulgaria
 Stavropol ("city of the cross"), Russia
 Tiraspol ("Tiras' city"), Moldova

Cities with the -polis suffix
The names of other cities were also given the suffix -polis after antiquity, either referring to ancient names or unrelated:
 Anápolis, Goiás, Brazil
 Annapolis, Maryland, United States
 Augustinópolis, Tocantins, Brazil
 Biopolis, Singapore
 Borrazópolis, Parana, Brazil
 Cambysopolis, Turkey
 Cassopolis, Michigan, United States
 Christianopel, Sweden
 Copperopolis, California, United States
 Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, United States
 Demopolis, Alabama, United States
 Dianópolis, Tocantins, Brazil
 Divinópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil
 Eunápolis, Bahia, Brazil
 Florianópolis ("Floriano's city"), Santa Catarina, Brazil
 Gallipolis, Ohio, United States
 Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
 Kannapolis, North Carolina, United States
 Lithopolis, Ohio, United States
 Marijampolė, Lithuania
 Metropolis, Illinois, United States
 Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
 Opolis, Kansas, United States
 Penápolis, São Paulo, Brazil
 Petrópolis ("Pedro's city"), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 Piopolis, Quebec, Canada
 Pirenópolis, Goiás, Brazil
 Quirinópolis, Goiás, Brazil
 Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso, Brazil
 Rorainópolis, Roraima, Brazil
 Salinópolis, Pará, Brazil
 Sebastopol, California, United States
 Sophia-Antipolis, France
 Teresópolis ("Teresa's city"), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 Teutopolis, Illinois, United States
 Thermopolis, Wyoming, United States
 Uniopolis, Ohio, United States

Word lists
Toponymy
Onomastics