English Explanatory Dictionary

citizen

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A resident of a city or town, especially one with legally recognized rights or duties.
  2. A legally recognized member of a state, with associated rights and obligations; a person considered in terms of this role.
  3. An inhabitant or occupant: a member of any place.
  4. A resident of the heavenly city or (later) of the kingdom of God: a Christian; a good Christian.
  5. A civilian, as opposed to a police officer, soldier, or member of some other specialized (usually state) group.
  6. An ordinary person, as opposed to nobles and landed gentry on one side and peasants, craftsmen, and laborers on the other.
  7. A term of address among supporters of the French Revolution in France or elsewhere; (later, dated) a term of address among socialists and communists.
  8. A notional inhabitant of a software system; an object or a software application.
noun
  1. A personal Title denoting citizenship, implicitly of the nation in which it is spoken
  2. A pupil of City of London School

Pronunciation

/ˈsɪtɪzən/ /ˈsɪtɪsən/ en-us-citizen.ogg

Word forms

citizen citizens cytesin

Etymology

From Middle English citeseyn, citezein, borrowed from Anglo-Norman citesain (“burgher; city-dweller”), citezein, etc., probably a variant of cithein under influence of deinzein (“denizen”), from Anglo-Norman and Old French citeain, etc. and citaien, citeien, etc. ("burgher"; modern French citoyen), from cité ("settlement; cathedral city, city"; modern French cité) + -ain or -ien (“-an, -ian”). See city and hewe. Displaced native Old English burgwaras (plural form).

Synonyms

burgess burgher denizen townsman townswoman cityite freeman countryman national local inhabitant native occupant resident comrade

Antonyms

countryfolk country gentleman countryman peasant villager alien illegal alien foreigner illegal outsider stranger

Related words

citify city civil civilian

Derived words

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 concitizen corporate citizen cybercitizen dual citizen e-citizen fellow citizen First Citizen market citizen NCTzen netizen noncitizen private citizen protocitizen semicitizen shitizen sovereign citizen supercitizen Twittizen uncitizen undercitizen world citizen
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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