citizen

Word family

• citizenship
  nounB2
• citizenry
  nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Citizen, national, resident, inhabitant, and subject all refer to people in relation to a place, but they differ in legal weight and connotation. Citizen is the broadest everyday term for someone who legally belongs to a country — they hold a passport, can vote, and enjoy the state's protection. National is the formal equivalent used on official documents and in international law; every citizen is a national, but not every national may have full voting rights (some countries distinguish nationality from citizenship). Resident simply means someone living in a place, regardless of legal status — a foreign student living in London for three years is a resident of the UK but not a citizen. Inhabitant is even more neutral and place-focused; you could talk about the inhabitants of a remote island without any reference to nationality. Subject is mostly historical, tied to monarchies: a British subject owes allegiance to the Crown, whereas a citizen of a republic is a rights-bearing member of a state. For everyday use, citizen is the right choice when legal membership matters; resident and inhabitant work when only location is relevant.

Common collocations

Etymology

Citizen entered English from Anglo‑Norman citesein, which came from Old French citeain, meaning 'inhabitant of a city'. The French word traced back to Latin civitas ('city' or 'city‑state'), itself from civis ('citizen'). Originally the term referred only to someone living in a city with local civic rights. As city‑states gave way to nation‑states, the meaning expanded to include membership in a whole country — a person who owes allegiance to a national government and is entitled to its protections.