Contents

English

Etymology

Anglo-Norman, from Old French citezein (spelling altered by influence of denizen), from Old French citeain, from cite, in medieval usage a cathedral town, but origininally meaning any settlement, regardless of size, from earlier citet, itself from Latin civitas "citizenship, community of citizens", from civis "townsman, citizen" from a Proto-Indo-European base *kei- "to lie, homestead."

Pronunciation

Noun

citizen (plural citizens)

  1. A person that is a legally recognized as a member of a state, with associated rights and obligations.
    When the rebellion broke out, the United States promptly evacuated its citizens from the area.
  2. (dated) A member of a state that is not a monarchy; used as antonym to subject.
  3. A person that is a legally recognized resident of a city or town.
  4. A resident of any particular place to which the subject feels to belong.
    Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau - a book written of the former Canadian prime minister by John English, 2007.
  5. A civilian, as opposed to a soldier, police officer etc.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Anagrams

 

The above information uses material from Wiktionary and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Sat Jul 31 05:46:56 2010. [ refresh local cache ]
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

[Hide]▼
[Hide]▲