civitas
Americannoun
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the body of citizens who constitute a state, especially a city-state, commonwealth, or the like.
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citizenship, especially as imparting shared responsibility, a common purpose, and sense of community.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of civitas
From Latin cīvitās; literally, “commmunity of citizens, citizenship,” equivalent to cīvis “citizen, fellow citizen” + -tās -ty 2 ( def. )
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:
In addition to maintaining their frontier with an army, Romans carried on a perpetual debate about citizenship, or civitas, and whether to extend its benefits to different groups.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
To gain civitas at birth, a person needed to be the child of two citizens.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Harvey, a self-educated college dropout, talks a lot about William James, agora, public squares and preaching civitas.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bell's book is the year's most promising start on the long road back to civitas.
From Time Magazine Archive
Whence comes civilization but from civitas, the city?
From The Amateur Garden by Cable, George Washington
When the legions departed, the neatly defined "civitates" quickly frayed as rivalries resurfaced.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2014
Perhaps this was not entirely an innovation, for it appears that at the end of the Roman supremacy certain civitates had already a comes.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 8 "France" to "Francis Joseph I." by Various
They still preserved in their municipal institutions the old style of republicas derived from the civitates and respublicae of ancient Rome.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 "Banks" to "Bassoon" by Various
The pope being at Sienna, a monk undertook to show him Centum nonaginta civitates.
From Bartholomew Sastrow Being the Memoirs of a German Burgomaster by Sastrow, Bartholomew
Some favoured states like Athens and Sparta retained their full sovereign rights as civitates liberae, the other cities continued to enjoy local self-government.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 4 "Grasshopper" to "Greek Language" by Various
Definitions 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.
