citizen
Americannoun
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citizens
plural
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a native or naturalized member of a state or nation who owes allegiance to its government and is entitled to its protection (distinguished from alien).
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an inhabitant of a city or town, especially one entitled to its privileges or franchises.
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an inhabitant, or denizen.
The deer is a citizen of our woods.
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a civilian, as distinguished from a soldier, police officer, etc.
noun
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a native registered or naturalized member of a state, nation, or other political community Compare alien
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an inhabitant of a city or town
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a native or inhabitant of any place
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a civilian, as opposed to a soldier, public official, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of citizen
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English citisein, from Anglo-French citesein, Old French citeain, from cite city + -ain -an; change from citeain to citesein perhaps by association with Anglo-French denzain denizen
Explanation
It's pretty hard to be on this planet and not be recognized as a citizen of somewhere. You can be a citizen of a city, a country, or the world. Citizen can mean "an inhabitant of a particular place." To be recognized as an official citizen of a town, city, or country, one typically has to meet certain requirements. In return, one gets certain rights, such as the right to vote. In other uses, a citizen may just be someone who lives in a place, such as a "citizen of the world." That's a nice thing to be, but it's not going to get you social security payments when you retire.
Vocabulary lists containing citizen
Election Lingo
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Electoral Elocution: The Verbiage of Voting
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"The Civil Rights Movement"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Granted by the International Astronomical Union in 2011, the status aims to safeguard the right of any citizen to enjoy the night sky by helping to limit light pollution.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
The world might look and think it sees some nice, dismissible senior citizen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Omar became a U.S. citizen in 2000, under a law that makes minors eligible for citizenship when their parents are naturalized.
From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2026
Mikula filed a citizen petition in August 2025 proposing the change and it will appear on ballots statewide this November.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
I realized that Frankie must have told Mr. Whitby that he was from Russia, although by imperial law he was considered neither a Russian citizen nor an ethnic Pole or Lithuanian.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
The bystander's actions "exemplify the heroism of everyday citizens who are prepared and ready to respond when innocent lives are on the line," it added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
American citizens living abroad generally remain subject to U.S. tax-filing requirements on worldwide income.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026
The Finnish Immigration Service said all asylum decisions were based on international refugee law standards, and the share of Russian citizens receiving asylum was in line with EU averages.
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
“What I want to do,” Gen. Grynkewich said, “is assure the one billion citizens of our alliance that we’ve got this.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Few Russian women who became pilots in the Soviet Union’s state-sponsored clubs in the 1980s and early 1990s can afford to fly as private citizens now that the Soviet Union no longer exists.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
