How to use civilian in a sentence
40 example sentences · noun, adjective
Civilian means a person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces. Example: “Three civilians were apprehended by the soldiers and taken away in a military vehicle.”
Examples of civilian by meaning
nounA person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.
- Three civilians were apprehended by the soldiers and taken away in a military vehicle.
nounA person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity, an outsider.
- The bathroom was for employees only, so civilians weren't allowed to use it.
- 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
adjectiveNot 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.
More sentences with civilian
- The device can be used for both civilian and military purposes.From the entry purpose
- How long does it take to make a bunch of civilians an effective military force?From the entry effective
- More civilians than soldiers have been blown up by anti-personnel mines.From the entry blow up
- The United States will continue to pursue a military and civilian counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan.From the entry counterinsurgency
- He hurried out of his uniform and threw on his civilians.From the entry civilians
- His soldierly demeanour stood him good stead in civilian life when vicissitudes would assail him.From the entry soldierly
- The spillover from this war will be many little massacres of civilians by civilians.From the entry spillover
- (specifically) A campaign of bomb and drone attacks used by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian civilians in Kherson.From the entry human safari
- War is the continuation of politics by other means; war is politics with the addition of hyperviolence and extra-civilian scope.From the entry politics
- Civilian casualties are just the cost of doing business when conducting a military operation in a dense urban enviroment.From the entry cost of doing business
- Some historians have since classified the Siege of Leningrad as a genocide due to the intentional destruction of the city and the systematic starvation of its civilian population.From the entry starve
- GPS spoofing by militaries has become a civilian hazard as well, presenting a risk to commercial aircraft.2025 November 19, Mike Cherney, “The Pentagon Can’t Trust GPS Anymore. Is Quantum Physics the Answer? New devices navigate without…. From the entry military
- It went on to say that “Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff and all civilians.”2025 August 25, Isabel Kershner, Aaron Boxerman, Ameera Harouda, quoting office of Benjamin Netanyahu, “Israeli Hospital Strike Kills 20…. From the entry mishap
- Every soldier knows that “feather merchants” means civilians, but few know why it does.2016, Max Shulman, The Feather Merchants: A Novel. From the entry feather merchant
- Army to acknowledge having killed civilian refugees at No Gun Ri.2014 December 29, Bernard McGhee, “Final goodbye: Roll call of some who died in 2014”, in AP News, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2026. From the entry No Gun Ri
- From reading various online sites, it seems the civilian consensus is to fire the CHP officer.2014 June 2, masameet, Bay Area Riders Forum. From the entry CHPer
- It’s no secret that the United States may be losing its edge in civilian aviation.2013 December, Paul Voss, “Small Drones Deserve Sensible Regulation”, in IEEE Spectrum. From the entry edge
- But residents say the Hanerik shooting victims were unarmed civilians simply seeking an end to heavy-handed policing.2013 August 26, Andrew Jacobs, “Over News of Clash, a Shroud of Silence in Xinjiang”, in New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the…. From the entry Hanerik
- All of them were living and conducting exercises right up against Okinawan civilian neighborhoods.2010, Walter Mondale, David Hage, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics, Scribner, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 323. From the entry Okinawa
- Turians have 27 citizenship tiers, beginning with civilians (client races and children).2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Turians: Government Codex entry. From the entry tier
- We feel one of these untrained civilians will come face to face with a scrupleless smuggler.2005 April 29, “Ex-valley Man Eyes US-Mexico Border”, in Daily News of Los Angeles. From the entry scrupleless
- We should emphasise that the militariat enlists both military and civilians members.2004, Democracy and Development. From the entry militariat
- First, a civilian settlement is not a “need of the occupying army” for which requisition is permitted.2002, David Kretzmer, The Occupation of Justice, page 77. From the entry requisition
- The barangay tanods are civilians who enforce peace and order in the locality.2001, Kate Kirk, A Guide to Los Baños for IRRI International Staff & Families, page 51. From the entry tanod
- The police department lobbies phenomenally strongly against any civilian review board.1991 February 11, Ed Boyce, quoting David Scondras, “Bashers With Badges”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 29, page 6. From the entry phenomenally
- The Turkish population was subjected to horrible atrocities by the retreating troops and accompanying civilian Christian mobs.1979, P. K. Jensen, “The Greco-Turkish war, 1920–1922”, in International Journal of Middle East Studies, volume 10, number 4, Cambridge…. From the entry mob
- It limits the rights of nonweapon countries to develop an export business in civilian reactor technology.1972, Robert L Pfaltzgraff, Politics and the international system. From the entry reactor
- Furthermore, the military operator is far less conscious of budgetary constraints than is the civilian consumer.1955, Arthur Smithies, The Budgetary Process in the United States, page 290. From the entry conscious
- The civilian proved to be a boy of about sixteen in knee pants.1945, Journal of the United States Artillery, page 49. From the entry about
- No adverse consequences ensued for British naval or civilian interests from the rendition of the territory.1938, Sir Eric Teichman, Affairs Of China: A Survey of the Recent History and Present Circumstances of the Republic of China, Methuen…. From the entry Weihaiwei
- Behind him comes a stranger in civilian dress, with his head uncovered.1924, John Ross, “Chapter XXXI: Of Internment Camps, Of Quaint Ceremonies, Of The Lord Chancellorship, and Of the Conclusion of the Whole…. From the entry our excellencies
- Violet and forced migrations prevailed, which included flows of civilian refugees, active militsiias, and repatriated war prisoners from World War i.2025 December 8 (indicated as 2026), Zhanna Son, “The Ethnopolitical Situation in the Primor’e”, in The Russian Koreans in the 1920s and…. From the entry militsiia
- Coast Guard service members, civilian employees and their families have had to scramble to pay for basic necessities.2019 January 24, Tara Law, “There’s a Food Pantry at the Coast Guard Academy. How the Shutdown Is Causing Special Pain for Service…. From the entry basic
- Area children, military brats and civilians alike, would flock to the base daily to take golf, tennis, and swimming lessons.2019 September 17, Edward Snowden, Permanent Record, New York, N.Y.: Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 37. From the entry commissary
- Nouf Marwaai has also been honored with one of India’s highest civilian awards, the Padma Shri, for popularizing yoga.2018 June 20, “DiplomaticQuarter: Indian Embassy to celebrate 4th International Yoga Day”, in Arab News. From the entry popularize
Meaning of civilian
- noun A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces.
- noun A person who does not belong to a particular group or engage in a particular activity, an outsider.
- noun One skilled in civil law.
Questions about civilian in a sentence
- How do you use civilian in a sentence?
- Civilian is used as a noun and adjective. For example: “Three civilians were apprehended by the soldiers and taken away in a military vehicle.”
- What is a short sentence with civilian?
- “The three detainees were actually army defectors wearing civilian clothing.”
- 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.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: civilian (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use civilian in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/civilian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
