civilian
Syllables: ci·vil·ian/sɪˈvɪl.jən/
civilian noun: a person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.
Noun
civilian (plural civilians)
- A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.
- An army never can be commanded or controlled by civilians.1858, Prince George, letter to Sir Colin Campbell
- Three civilians were apprehended by the soldiers and taken away in a military vehicle.
- A person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity, an outsider.
- I have this vision one day that I'll walk amongst you a regular civilian.2013, Eminem, “The Monster”, in The Marshall Mathers LP 2
- The bathroom was for employees only, so civilians weren't allowed to use it.
- One skilled in civil law.
- Ancient civilians and writers upon government.1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 4
- A student of civil law at a university or college.
- although he kept his name in the college books, and changed his commoner gown to that of a civilian, yet he had now, I believe, no thoughts of proceeding to any degree; and seldom resided in college any more1788, Richard Graves, Recollection of Some Particulars in the Life of the Late William Shenstone
- A person not affiliated with a gang.
- An employee of the civil service.
Adjective
civilian (not comparable)
- Not related to the military, police or other governmental professions.
- The three detainees were actually army defectors wearing civilian clothing.
- He worked as a civilian journalist for ten years before being employed by the public broadcaster.
civilian meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
civilian in Hindi
- non-military person
- नागरिक nāgrik
- not related to the military armed forces
- नागरिक nāgrik, सिविल sivil
civilian in Tamil
- குடிமுறை சார்ந்தவர், படைத்துறை சாராதவர், படைத்துறைச் சாராத, பொதுத்துறைச் சார்ந்தவர்
civilian in Urdu
- سویلین
civilian in Bengali
- বিধিজ্ঞ, অসামরিক, অযাজনীয়
More languagesFewer languages
- civilian in Malayalam
- സിവിൽ ഉദ്യോഗസ്ഥൻ, സാധാരണപൗരൻ
- civilian in Kannada
- ನಾಗರಿಕ, ಪೌರ, ನಾಗರಿಕನಿಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ, ವಿನಯಶೀಲತೆ
- civilian in Odia
- ବେସାମରିକ ନାଗରିକ
- civilian in Arabic
- مَدَنِيّ madaniyy, مَدَنِيَّة madaniyya
- civilian in Malay
- orang periman, orang awam
- civilian in Persian
- مدنی madani, غیرنظامی ġeyrenezâmi
- civilian in Thai
- พลเรือน pon-lá-rʉʉan
- civilian in Vietnamese
- người thường, thường dân, dân thường
- civilian in Myanmar
- အရပ်သား a.rapsa:, အရပ် a.rap
- Kashmiri
- سِوَل sival
Examples of civilian in a sentence
- The device can be used for both civilian and military purposes.
- How long does it take to make a bunch of civilians an effective military force?
- More civilians than soldiers have been blown up by anti-personnel mines.
Forms of civilian
| plural | civilians |
|---|
Origin of civilian
From Middle English cyvylien, from Old French civilien. Equivalent to civil + -ian.
Words formed from civilian
Phrases with civilian
Questions about civilian
- What does civilian mean?
- Civilian means a person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.
- What is civilian in Hindi?
- Civilian in Hindi is नागरिक (nāgrik), सिविल (sivil). See Civilian meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is civilian?
- Civilian can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce civilian?
- Civilian is pronounced /sɪˈvɪl.jən/.
- What is the plural of civilian?
- The plural of civilian is civilians.
Words near civilian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: civilian (page history and authors); civilian (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); civilian (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); civilian (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); civilian (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); civilian (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); civilian (Odia, 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-civilian.ogg.
Cite this entry: “civilian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/civilian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.