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civic

UK/ˈsɪvɪk/US/ˈsɪvɪk/
adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,705 of 15,258leans written

Civic means to do with a town and the duties of its people. Civic pride, a civic centre, civic duty.

It covers both the institutions of a town and what its citizens owe it — a civic centre is a building, and civic duty is an obligation. Civic and civil split the work: civic is about the city, civil about the citizen and about politeness.

Definitions of civic

  1. 1adjectivecivicTo do with a town and the duties of its people.C1

    “Local businesses showed real civic pride by helping to clean up the town square.”

civic is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin civicus means of citizens, from civis, a citizen. City, civil and citizen are all relatives.

  1. Latin

    cīvicus — pertaining to a city or citizens

  2. English, today

    civic

Latin cīvicus (“pertaining to a city or citizens”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

civic in the wild

  • Especially in the discussions among thinkers of Eastern and Central Europe, civil society is seen also as a normative concept of civic values.

    Civil society

  • Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern.

    Civic engagement

  • The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and improve the quality of community life.

    Civic engagement

  • Membership in the civic nation is open to every person by citizenship, regardless of culture or ethnicity.

    Civic nationalism

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • civic centre