civil service

American  

noun

1. those branches of public service concerned with all governmental administrative functions outside the armed services.

2. the body of persons employed in these branches.

3. a system or method of appointing government employees on the basis of competitive examinations, rather than by political patronage.

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civil service British  

noun

1. the service responsible for the public administration of the government of a country. It excludes the legislative, judicial, and military branches. Members of the civil service have no official political allegiance and are not generally affected by changes of governments

2. the members of the civil service collectively

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civil service Cultural  

1. The nonmilitary personnel who work for a government, applying its laws and regulations.

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Etymology

Origin of civil service

First recorded in 1775–85

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

civil service

Department of Agriculture’s civilian workforce, according to the independent federal agency tasked with managing the civil service.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026

The union said the sacking had taken place without "even the semblance of a fair process" and risked damaging the civil service.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Charles Dickens’s “Little Dorrit” mocked the civil service with the fictional Circumlocution Office, which was dedicated to the science of “how not to do it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026

Does it extend to the civil service as a whole?

From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026

Like me, they had taken a civil service test nearly two years before and then not heard a word until January 1997, when we’d all been summoned to Albany for physical and psychological testing.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Related Words

• administration
• authority
• management
• ministry
• red tape