Word.ws English Dictionary

constable

/ˈkʌn.stə.bəl/US/ˈkɑn.stə.bəl/

constable noun: one holding the lowest rank in most Commonwealth police forces. (See also chief constable.).

Noun

constable (plural constables)

  1. One holding the lowest rank in most Commonwealth police forces. (See also chief constable.)
    • As soon as Julia returned with a constable, Timothy, who was on the point of exhaustion, prepared to give over to him gratefully. The newcomer turned out to be a powerful youngster, fully trained and eager to help, and he stripped off his tunic at once.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  2. (UK) A police officer or an officer with equivalent powers.
  3. (historical) An officer of a noble court in the Middle Ages, usually a senior army commander. (See also marshal).
  4. The warden of a castle.
  5. (US) An elected or appointed public officer, usually at municipal level, responsible for maintaining order or serving writs and court orders.
  6. (Channel Islands) An elected head of a parish (also known as a connétable)
  7. A large butterfly, Dichorragia nesimachus, family Nymphalidae, of Asia.

Verb

constable (third-person singular simple present constables, present participle constabling, simple past and past participle constabled)

  1. (dated, intransitive) To act as a constable or policeman.

Proper noun capitalized: Constable

Constable (countable and uncountable, plural Constables)

  1. An English surname originating as an occupation from Old French conestable (“constable”).
    • John Constable, English painter.
  2. A town in Franklin County, New York; named for landowner William Constable.

constable meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali

constable in Hindi

police officer rank
आरक्षी ārakṣī

constable in Tamil

காவலர்

constable in Marathi

हवालदार, कॉन्स्टेबल

constable in Bengali

constable
কোতোয়াল kōtōẇal, সিপাহী sipahī
More languagesFewer languages
constable in Telugu
కానిస్టేబుల్, కాన్స్టేబల్, కాన్స్టేబుల్
constable in Malayalam
പോലീസുകാരൻ, കോൺസ്റ്റബിൾ
constable in Kannada
ಕಾಪಿಗ
constable in Punjabi
ਕਾਂਸਟੇਬਲ
constable in Odia
କନଷ୍ଟେବଳ, କନେଷ୍ଟବଳ
constable in Nepali
कन्स्टेबल, कोन्स्टेबल, कन्स्टेबललाई
constable in Tagalog
konstable
constable in Malay
konstabel
constable in Indonesian
jagabaya
constable in Persian
آژان âžân
constable in Vietnamese
quản đốc

Examples of constable in a sentence

  • The constable was promoted to working as a shadow for the Royals.
  • Many people are unhappy with the sacking of the chief constable and demand his immediate reinstatement.
  • “Constable Fancy’s collecting evidence from his flat while Morse and me brace Valdemar.”

All 15 example sentences with constable

Synonyms of constable

Forms of constable

Noun
pluralconstables
Verb
third-person singular presentconstables
present participleconstabling
past participleconstabled
pastconstabled
Proper noun
pluralConstables

Plural of constable: constables

Origin of constable

From Middle English constable, cunstable, constabil, connestable, cunestable, from Old French conestable, from Latin comes stabulī (“officer of the stables”). For the sense-development; compare marshal. Doublet of connétable.

Words formed from constable

Phrases with constable

Questions about constable

What does constable mean?
Constable means one holding the lowest rank in most Commonwealth police forces. (See also chief constable.).
What is constable in Hindi?
Constable in Hindi is आरक्षी (ārakṣī). See Constable meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is constable?
Constable can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce constable?
Constable is pronounced /ˈkʌn.stə.bəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of constable?
The plural of constable is constables.

Words near constable in the dictionary

  1. const
  2. const correctness
  3. const-correct
  4. const.
  5. constab
  6. constable
  7. Constable Burton
  8. Constable country
  9. constabled
  10. constableries
  11. constablery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: constable (page history and authors); Constable (page history and authors); constable (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); constable (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); কোতোয়াল (Bengali) (page history and authors); constable (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); constable (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); constable (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); constable (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); constable (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); constable (Nepali, 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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Cite this entry: “constable.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/constable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.