civil service

noun

: the administrative service of a government or international agency exclusive of the armed forces

especially : one in which appointments are determined by competitive examination

Examples of civil service in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The merger has been widely seen as part of the Labour government's initiative to cut government expenditure and civil service costs by 15% by the end of the decade. —Tereza Pultarova, Space.com, 1 Sep. 2025

Provide ample civil service protections — but no unions. —Chicago Tribune, 1 Sep. 2025

Kuipers bases this argument on rich empirical evidence from Indonesia, derived from studies of civil service recruitment. —Foreign Affairs, 19 Aug. 2025

Launched in 2022, the initiative includes a 900-page policy agenda proposing sweeping federal agency reforms, rollbacks of progressive policies and expansion of executive power through civil service restructuring. —Adeola Adeosun hollie Silverman, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1770, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for civil service

• interservice
• disservice
• preservice
• nervous
• nervus

Kids Definition

civil service

noun

: the branch of a government that takes care of the business of running a state but that does not include the lawmaking branch, the military, or the court system