civil servant

noun

1

: a member of a civil service

2

: a member of the administrative staff of an international agency

Synonyms

• public servant
• clerk
• official
• employee
• worker
• bureaucrat

Examples of civil servant in a Sentence

took the examination to become a civil servant in the defense department

Recent Examples on the Web

Mary Roy, too, married to flee violence—her father, a civil servant under the British, beat his wife and whipped his children—only to find that her husband was an incorrigible drunk. —Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2025

Mass firings of civil servants, the dismissal of government watchdogs, the weaponization of the military against our citizens, the use of the national budget as a cudgel, and the dehumanization of immigrants. —Stacey Abrams, Time, 28 Aug. 2025

Now a civil servant and parent herself, Helen told Newsweek that the slate-and-rock activity happened spontaneously. —Soo Kim, MSNBC Newsweek, 28 Aug. 2025

Compensation costs inevitably grow due to rising healthcare expenses and cost-of-living adjustments for Capitol Police officers, workers at the Architect of the Capitol, and the nonpartisan civil servants inside the Library of Congress and other support agencies. —Kevin R. Kosar, The Washington Examiner, 22 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1767, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for civil servant

• fervent
• maidservant
• manservant
• observant