Word.ws English Dictionary

anti-civil

anti-civil adjective: uncivil(ised) and in opposition to civil society; opposed to or lacking the features of civil society (for example, opposing or simply lacking civil liberties).

Adjective

anti-civil (comparative more anti-civil, superlative most anti-civil)

  1. (rare) Uncivil(ised) and in opposition to civil society; opposed to or lacking the features of civil society (for example, opposing or simply lacking civil liberties).
    • … to see the Antonines as they really were;—one may concede that the point of view from which Christianity appeared something anti-civil and anti-social, …1905-1909, Matthew Arnold, Essays
    • [...] then the latter, by definition, can't be civil. They might even be anti-civil or a-civil. They must be incompatible with civilization. But this is simply not the case. As was shown, [...]1971, Gottfried Dietze, In Defense of Property

Forms of anti-civil

comparativemore anti-civil
superlativemost anti-civil

Origin of anti-civil

From anti- + civil.

Questions about anti-civil

What does anti-civil mean?
Anti-civil means uncivil(ised) and in opposition to civil society; opposed to or lacking the features of civil society (for example, opposing or simply lacking civil liberties).
What part of speech is anti-civil?
Anti-civil is an adjective.

Words near anti-civil in the dictionary

  1. anti-circ
  2. anti-circer
  3. anti-circers
  4. anti-circumcisionist
  5. anti-circumcisionists
  6. anti-civil
  7. anti-civilisational
  8. anti-civilizational
  9. anti-clericalism
  10. anti-climaces
  11. anti-climax

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: anti-civil (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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