citizen
noun
Simple meaning
A legally recognized member of a state, with associated rights and obligations.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
situhzuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪtəzən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A legally recognized member of a state, with associated rights and obligations; a person considered in terms of this role.
A resident of a city or town, especially one with legally recognized rights or duties.
An inhabitant or occupant: a member of any place.
A civilian, as opposed to a police officer, soldier, or member of some other specialized (usually state) group.
A personal Title denoting citizenship, implicitly of the nation in which it is spoken
A pupil of City of London School
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A legally recognized member of a state, with associated rights and obligations; a person considered in terms of this role.
Used this way, citizen is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use citizen
- “Every citizen has the right to vote in the election.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: legally recognized member of a state
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.