Word.ws English Dictionary

polis

/ˈpɒ.lɪs/

polis noun: a Greek city-state.

Noun (1)

polis (plural poleis or polises)

  1. (historical) A Greek city-state.
    • By the end of the century, poleis had been established throughout the Hellenic world, all bearing a marked family resemblance.2006, Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation, Atlantic Books 2007, page 161

Noun (2)

polis (countable and uncountable, plural polises)

  1. (Geordie, Ireland, Scotland, uncountable) The police.
    • 'Oh, don't bring in the polis on me, kind gentleman,' implored Mrs Laffey with redoubled fluency; 'the dirty, thievin' sergeant that set the lie against me a short while back over Mister Johnson's sthrayin' pullets, it's little justice I should ever see. Be the good kind gentleman—'1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries
    • Even in his Ma's womb, you would have had to define Spud less as a foetus, more as a set of dormant drug and personality problems. He'd probably draw the polis onto them through knocking a saltcellar out of the Little Chef.1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 328
  2. (Geordie, Ireland, Scotland, countable) A police officer.

Proper noun capitalized: Polis

Polis

  1. A town and municipality of Paphos district, Cyprus; in full, Polis Chrysochous.
  2. A surname.
    • Don't even think about the odds that Bobby Schmautz of Vancouver Canucks would score the winning goal or that Greg Polis of Pittsburgh Penguins would win the car.1973 January 31, Ken Fathers, “Schmautz Gets Winner, Polis The Car”, in The Windsor Star, page 33
    • Carol Polis, who figures she's the world's only lady boxing judge, is having the time of her life— but two things bother her a bit.1973 May 2, Associated Press, “Carol Polis loves judging those bouts”, in Sarasota Herald-Tribune, page 3C

polis meaning in Tamil

polis in Tamil

நகரம், நகரரசு, நகராட்சி

Forms of polis

pluralpoleis
pluralpolises
alternative formpollis

Plural of polis: poleis or polises

Origin of polis

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek πόλις (pólis, “fortified town; city state”). Doublet of Puri and puri

Borrowed from Scots polis. Doublet of police, policy, and polity.

Words that rhyme with polis

Questions about polis

What does polis mean?
Polis means a Greek city-state.
What is polis in Tamil?
Polis in Tamil is நகரம், நகரரசு, நகராட்சி. See Polis meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is polis?
Polis can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce polis?
Polis is pronounced /ˈpɒ.lɪs/.
What is the plural of polis?
The plural of polis is poleis.

Words near polis in the dictionary

  1. polioviruses
  2. poliphagous
  3. poliplicate
  4. Poliquin
  5. Poliquins
  6. polis
  7. Polisario Front
  8. Polisbet
  9. polisci
  10. polises
  11. polish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: polis (page history and authors); Polis (page history and authors); polis (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “polis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/polis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.