The political and social organization in ancient Greece consisted of individual city-states (called polis), to which associated colonies were added later. The Greek city states were independent of each other, had their own laws and institutions, but shared some basic features and culture. There were more than a thousand of ancient city states, the most important of which were Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Syracuse and Rhodes.
The term "polis" refers to an ancient Greek city-state, but it also means a city or a municipality. In fact, it is the precursor of the modern city, or state.
Derivatives of this word are still used today: metropolis, megapolis, necropolis, technopolis, etc. Even various world cities refer to the word polis in their names: Tripoli, Annapolis, Minneapolis, Naples, Sevastopol, Tiraspol, etc.