# citizen

Pronunciation: say "SI-ti-zuhn" /ˈsɪtɪzən/

## Noun

1. A legally recognized member of a state, holding the rights and obligations that come with that role.
   - Simple: A person who legally belongs to a country and has its rights and duties.
   - _Every citizen is entitled to vote in national elections._
   - _After passing the test and the interview, she was sworn in as a naturalized citizen._
2. A person who lives in a particular city, town, or other place, especially as a member of its community; also used loosely of any inhabitant.
   - Simple: Someone who lives in a city, town, or other place.
   - _The citizens of the borough gathered for the annual council meeting._
   - _As a citizen of the city, she paid local taxes and used its public services._
3. A civilian: an ordinary person, rather than a police officer, soldier, or member of another specialized state group.
   - Simple: An ordinary person who is not a soldier or a police officer.
   - _The officer waved the citizens back from the crash scene._
   - _It was an ordinary citizen, not an officer, who finally spotted the stolen truck and called it in._
4. A form of address used among supporters of the French Revolution, and later, in dated use, among socialists and communists.
   - Simple: A title used by supporters of the French Revolution, and later by socialists and communists, when addressing each other.
   - _Citizen Lefèvre, the committee requests your testimony at once._
   - _"Citizens, the republic is in danger!" the speaker cried from the platform._
5. A Christian, sometimes specifically a good Christian, regarded as an inhabitant of the heavenly city or, in later usage, God's kingdom.
   - Simple: A person who belongs to God's kingdom, a Christian.
   - _The sermon reminded the congregation that they were citizens of the heavenly city._
   - _He spoke of the late bishop as a true citizen of God's kingdom._

## Noun

6. An ordinary townsperson ranking below the nobility and landed gentry but above peasants, craftsmen, and laborers. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A middle-class town person, not a noble and not a poor laborer.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A notional inhabitant of a software system; an object or software application treated as a resident of that system.

## Origin

From Middle English citeseyn, borrowed from Anglo-Norman citesain ('burgher; city-dweller'), probably a variant influenced by deinzein ('denizen'). It goes back to Old French forms like citeain, built from cité ('settlement; city') plus a suffix meaning '-an, -ian'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/citizen (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).