citizen
UK/ˈsɪtɪzən//ˈsɪtɪzən/
citizen noun: a resident of a city or town, especially one with legally recognized rights or duties.
Noun (1)
citizen (plural citizens)
- A resident of a city or town, especially one with legally recognized rights or duties.
- [T]hat large body of the working men who were not counted as citizens and had not so much as a vote to serve as an anodyne to their stomachs were likely to get impatient.1862 July – 1863 August, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “What Florence was Thinking of”, in Romola. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1863, →OCLC, book II, page...
- A legally recognized member of a state, with associated rights and obligations; a person considered in terms of this role.
- I am a Roman citizen.
- Assistant: You'll meet with the managing director and Dr Sinita Brahmachari, the engineer who designed the chair.
Peter Mackenzie: Indian, is he?
Assistant: She is a British citizen, Minister. Born in Coventry.1990, House of Cards, season 1, episode 4
- Synonyms:
- countryman, national
- Antonyms:
- alien, illegal alien, foreigner, illegal
- An inhabitant or occupant: a member of any place.
- Diogenes reckoned himself a citizen of the world.
- A jellyfish... carries poison cells that can sting other citizens of the sea.1979 October, Boys' Life, page 33
- A resident of the heavenly city or (later) of the kingdom of God: a Christian; a good Christian.
- A civilian, as opposed to a police officer, soldier, or member of some other specialized (usually state) group.
- An ordinary person, as opposed to nobles and landed gentry on one side and peasants, craftsmen, and laborers on the other.
- [W]ould Mr. Delvile, who hardly ever spoke but to the high-born, without seeming to think his dignity somewhat injured, deign to receive for a daughter in law the child of a citizen and tradesman?1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, III.v.6
- A term of address among supporters of the French Revolution in France or elsewhere; (later, dated) a term of address among socialists and communists.
- Citizen, I desire nothing more than to get to Paris, though I could dispense with the escort.1859, Charles Dickens, “In Secret”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 166
- Synonyms:
- comrade
- A notional inhabitant of a software system; an object or a software application.
- The HIG delivers Apple's design commandments, the company's definition of what it means to be a good iPhone citizen.2010, Josh Clark, Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 99
Noun (2) capitalized: Citizen
Citizen (plural Citizens)
- A personal Title denoting citizenship, implicitly of the nation in which it is spoken
- A pupil of City of London School
citizen meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
citizen in Hindi
- legal member of a state
- नागरिक nāgrik, शहरी śahrī
citizen in Tamil
- legal member of a state
- குடிமகன் kuṭimakaṉ, குடிமகள் kuṭimakaḷ, குடிமக்கள் kuṭimakkaḷ, பிரஜை pirajai
citizen in Marathi
- legal member of a state
- नागरिक nāgrik
citizen in Urdu
- legal member of a state
- شَہْری śahrī, ناگْرِک nāgrik
More languagesFewer languages
- citizen in Bengali
- নাগরিক nagrik
- citizen in Telugu
- పౌరుడు pauruḍu
- citizen in Malayalam
- പൗരൻ pauraṉ
- citizen in Kannada
- ಪೊಳಲಿಚ, ಪೊಳಲಿಗ, ಪೌರ, ನಾಗರಿಕ
- citizen in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ਹਿਰੀ śahirī, ਨਾਗਰਿਕ nāgrik
- citizen in Gujarati
- નાગરિક
- citizen in Sinhala
- පුරවැසියා purawæsiyā
- citizen in Pashto
- وګړى wagᶕṛay, تابع tābe', تبعه taba'a, رعيت ra'yat
- citizen in Tagalog
- mamamayan
- citizen in Arabic
- مُوَاطِن muwāṭin, مُوَاطِنَة muwāṭina, سَاكِن sākin, سَاكِنَة sākina
- citizen in Malay
- warganegara
- citizen in Indonesian
- warga kota, warga negara, rakyat, warga
- citizen in Persian
- غِیرنِظامی ġeyrenezâmi
- citizen in Thai
- พลเมือง pon-lá-mʉʉang
- citizen in Vietnamese
- công dân
- citizen in Myanmar
- နိုင်ငံသား nuingngamsa:
Examples of citizen in a sentence
- If the citizens must follow the law, then the government must follow the constitution.
- A Somalian man is a citizen of the easternmost Horner nation.
- Only three in five Assamese (citizens of Assam) are linguistic Assamese.
Synonyms of citizen
5 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
- alien
- illegal alien
- foreigner
- illegal
- outsider
- stranger
- countryfolk
- country gentleman
- countryman
- peasant
1 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of citizen
| plural | citizens |
|---|---|
| plural | Citizens |
| alternative form (obsolete) | cytesin |
Origin of citizen
From Middle English citeseyn (“inhabitant of a city or town”), citezein, citisein, from Anglo-Norman citesain (“city-dweller, town-dweller”), citesein, citezein, alteration of citeien from cite (“city”) + -ien (“-ain”) (probable variant of cithein perhaps influenced by dainzain (“denizen”), deinzein), from Old French cite (“city”) + -ien (whence French citoyen), from earlier citet, from Latin civitatem, citatem, from civis. See also city. Displaced native Old English burhsittend and Old English ceasterware.
Words formed from citizen
- anticitizen
- birthright citizen
- citizen band
- citizendom
- citizeness
- citizenhood
- citizenise
- citizenish
- citizenism
- citizenist
- citizenization
- citizenize
- citizen journalism
- citizen journalist
- citizen king
- citizen life
- citizenlike
- citizenly
- citizen magistrate
- citizen media
- citizen of nature
- citizen of the world
- citizen prince
- citizenry
- citizen's arrest
- citizens' band
- citizens band
- Citizens' Charter
- citizen science
- citizen scientist
- citizenship
- citizens' media
- citizen soldier
- citizen sovereign
- cocitizen
- cocitizenship
- concitizen
- corporate citizen
- cybercitizen
- dual citizen
- e-citizen
- fedizen
- fellow citizen
- First Citizen
- market citizen
- multicitizen
- NCTzen
- netizen
- noncitizen
- private citizen
- protocitizen
- semicitizen
- shitizen
- sovereign citizen
- supercitizen
- Twittizen
- uncitizen
- undercitizen
- Usenetizen
- world citizen
Phrases with citizen
Questions about citizen
- What does citizen mean?
- Citizen means a resident of a city or town, especially one with legally recognized rights or duties.
- What is citizen in Hindi?
- Citizen in Hindi is नागरिक (nāgrik), शहरी (śahrī). See Citizen meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is citizen?
- Citizen is a noun.
- How do you pronounce citizen?
- Citizen is pronounced /ˈsɪtɪzən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of citizen?
- The plural of citizen is citizens.
Words near citizen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: citizen (page history and authors); Citizen (page history and authors); పౌరుడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); citizen (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਨਾਗਰਿਕ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); citizen (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-citizen.ogg.
Cite this entry: “citizen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/citizen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.