civilian

noun ci·vil·ian \ sə-ˈvil-yən also -ˈvi-yən \

Updated on: 16 May 2018

Definition of civilian

1 : a specialist in Roman or modern civil law

2 a : one not on active duty in the armed services or not on a police or firefighting force

b : outsider 1

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civilian

adjective

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Examples of civilian in a Sentence

The bomb injured 12 civilians.

Recent Examples of civilian from the Web

Al-Sadr's Shiite militia known as the the Mahdi Army was blamed for the mass killings of Sunni civilians in sectarian violence that wracked Iraq in 2006 and 2007, and for cleansing Sunnis from parts of Baghdad.

— NBC News, "Muqtada al-Sadr recasts himself ahead of Iraq elections," 11 May 2018
At least 16 people were killed and seven wounded when gunmen opened fire on civilians in the bustling commercial area of Tarmiya, near Baghdad, Said al-Jassim, the head of the town's Sheikhs Council, told Iraqi state television on Wednesday.

— mohammed tawfeeq and susannah cullinane, CNN, "Iraqi air force targets ISIS in Syria," 6 May 2018
In 2007, Bush sent an additional twenty thousand troops to Iraq to quell the insurgency, but, two years later, car bombs were killing hundreds of civilians in Baghdad each month.

— rachel aviv, The New Yorker, "The Spy Who Came Home," 30 Apr. 2018
Israel wasn’t targeting Syria’s chemical weapons program, as the US would do four days later in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical attack on civilians in the Syrian town of Douma.

— neri zilber, Vox, "Israel and Iran’s escalating shadow war in Syria, explained," 25 Apr. 2018
Elsewhere, the border is protected by the Rapid Support Forces, a division of the Sudanese military that was formed from the janjaweed militias who led attacks on civilians in the Darfur conflict.

— patrick kingsley, New York Times, "By Stifling Migration, Sudan’s Feared Secret Police Aid Europe," 22 Apr. 2018
No casualties were reported as a result of the raid, which was a response to the regime’s suspected use of chlorine and sarin on civilians in the town of Douma, killing dozens of people.

— The Economist, "Politics this week," 19 Apr. 2018
Certainly people should not calm down about the effort to reduce the suffering of civilians in Syria.

— heather souvaine horn, The New Republic, "The Problem With “Cold War” Comparisons," 17 Apr. 2018
Trump said the strikes were intended to deter the use of chemical weapons like the attack on civilians in the Syrian town of Douma last week.

— carl weiser, Cincinnati.com, "Two local Republican Congressmen question Trump's authority to strike Syria," 14 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'civilian.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.