citizen

citizen [sit′ə zən, sit′əsən]

n.

[ME & Anglo-Fr citizein, altered (? infl. by denizen) < OFr citeain < cité: see CITY; CITIZEN sense 3 infl. by use of Fr citoyen during the Fr Revolution]

1. Historical a native or inhabitant, esp. a freeman or burgess, of a town or city

2. a native, inhabitant, or denizen of any place [citizens of the deep]

3. a member of a state or nation, esp. one with a republican form of government, who owes allegiance to it by birth or naturalization and is entitled to full civil rights

4. a civilian, as distinguished from a person in military service, a policeman, etc.

SYN.- CITIZEN refers to a member of a state or nation, esp. one with a republican government, who owes it allegiance and is entitled to full civil rights either by birth or naturalization; SUBJECT is the term used when the government is headed by a monarch or other sovereign; NATIONAL is applied to a person residing away from the country of which he or she is, or once was, a citizen or subject, and is especially used of one another by fellow countrymen living abroad; NATIVE refers to one who was born in the country under question, and is applied specifically to an original or indigenous inhabitant of the region

-ANT. ALIEN