policeman

noun

po·​lice·​man pə-ˈlēs-mən 

1

: a member of a police force

2

: one held to resemble a policeman

… making the United States the policeman for the whole wide world.

—R. B. Long

Synonyms of policeman

• cop
• officer
• constable

Examples of policeman in a Sentence

reported the crime to the nearest policeman

Recent Examples on the Web

Over the weekend, dozens of plain-clothes policemen entered the protest site and dragged Wangchuk into an ambulance. — Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 20 July 2026

Set between the 1950s and ’80s, the film tells the story of four male friends whose lives are shattered by the arrival of a policeman and his wife in their small working-class town. — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 16 July 2026

Bernthal played the real-life Baltimore policeman Wayne Jenkins, who led a crew of officers who shook down people for cash and drugs. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 16 July 2026

Finally, in 2024 in Chicago, in an accidental shooting, the same bullet pierced a 16-year-old boy and a policeman. — Cal Chengqi Fang, The Conversation, 14 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1788, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for policeman

• policemen

Kids Definition

policeman

noun

po·​lice·​man pə-ˈlē-smən 

: police officer

Medical Definition

policeman

noun

po·​lice·​man pə-ˈlēs-mən 

plural policemen -mən 

: an instrument (as a flat piece of rubber on a glass rod) for removing solids from a vessel (as a beaker)