Other forms: citizens
A citizen is somebody who legally belongs to a country and holds its rights and duties. A British citizen, become a citizen, dual citizenship.
Citizenship brings a passport, the right to live and work in the country, and usually the vote. It is not the same as residency, which is permission to live somewhere without belonging to it. The older sense is an inhabitant of a city, which is where the word comes from. Note senior citizen, a polite term for an older person; citizen science, research done by volunteers; and citizen's arrest, which is legal in limited circumstances and rarely wise.
1nouncitizenSomebody who legally belongs to a country.
“She became a citizen after eleven years and two forms.”
2nouninhabitantAn inhabitant of a city or town.
“The citizens of the town raised the money themselves.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
citizen is a member of a state.
Latin civitas meant a city and the body of its people — the same root as civil, civic and civilisation. To the Romans, belonging to the city and being a citizen were one idea, and the modern nation state simply enlarged the city.
Latin
civitas
Old French
cite — city
Anglo-Norman
citesain — city-dweller, town-dweller
Middle English
citeseyn — inhabitant of a city or town
English, today
citizen
Built from
From Middle English citeseyn (“inhabitant of a city or town”), citezein, citisein, from Anglo-Norman citesain (“city-dweller, town-dweller”), citesein, citezein, alteration of citeien from cite + -ien (probable variant of cithein perhaps influenced by dainzain (“denizen”), deinzein), from Old French cite (“city”) + -ien (whence citoyen), from earlier citet, from Latin civitas, from civis. See also city. Displaced native Old English burhsittend and Old English ceasterware.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA