civic
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to a city; municipal.
civic problems.
-
of or relating to citizenship; civil.
civic duties.
-
of citizens.
civic pride.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of civic
1535–45; < Latin cīvicus, equivalent to cīv ( is ) citizen + -icus -ic
Explanation
If something is related to or benefits an individual citizen, it can be described as civic. People often say that it is your civic duty to vote. The adjective civic comes from the Latin word civis, which was the word for a citizen of Ancient Rome. It is also a root word for "city," so civic can also mean anything related to a city. In your town, civic leaders meet frequently and public input is always welcome. So if you have a grievance about a civic issue, you should attend a meeting — or drop by the diner where the mayor always eats breakfast.
Vocabulary lists containing civic
A Long Walk to Water
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Back-Words: Palindromes
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We the People: Civ
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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.
Last weekend, the DE civic action group in Hungary sent 70 election monitors to Serbia, to work with students' movement representatives, visiting polling stations in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
The civic cleanup movements of the 1930s engaged mostly white, middle-class Angelenos.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
"Her work will focus on empathetic leadership, social cohesion and civic trust; further developing new approaches to global and values-based leadership," it said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
Every year Athenians would file into the agora and vote on whether to send a fellow citizen into exile for 10 years for some civic infraction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
Salva spoke to hundreds of people—in churches, at civic organizations, in schools.
From "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park
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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.
