civil servant

noun

1

: a member of a civil service

2

: a member of the administrative staff of an international agency

Synonyms of civil servant

• 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

Local governments are running deficits, with many struggling to pay teachers and civil servants their salaries and benefits on time. — Carl Minzner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2026

Emmanuel Marre | Belgium | 155 min Cannes Best Screenplay winner A MAN OF HIS TIME stars ANATOMY OF A FALL’s Swann Arlaud as a Vichy civil servant whose faith in government collapses amid collaboration, bureaucracy, and moral surrender. — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 29 Sep. 2026

The federal government had also been squeezing the region economically, by withholding funds needed to pay Tigray’s civil servants and limiting access to banks and fuel, according to the TPLF. — Alemayehu Fentaw Weldemariam, The Conversation, 29 Sep. 2026

Hiroto Sakata, a civil servant from Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, visited Tokyo's Asakusa district on a day trip and purchased tickets for two people, which cost 2,000 yen total, and skipped the line. — Masayuki Oi Japan News, Arkansas Online, 25 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1767, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for civil servant

• fervent
• maidservant
• manservant
• observant