civil society
All of the institutions, voluntary organizations and corporate bodies that are less…All of the institutions, voluntary organizations and corporate bodies that are less than the state but greater than the family.
» Algeria needs a strong civil society.
Amastan · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
3 senses(countable, uncountable)All of the institutions, voluntary organizations and corporate bodies that are less than the state but greater than the family.
Bürgergesellschaft, bürgerliche Gesellschaft (Hegelianism), Zivilgesellschaft
гражда́нское о́бществоgraždánskoje óbščestvo
громадянське суспільствоhromadjansʹke suspilʹstvo
(countable, uncountable)Those things expected of a democratic society, such as free speech and human rights.
(countable, uncountable)Organized, internally peaceful human society; civilization.
Examples
1 sentencesAlgeria needs a strong civil society.
Translations
6 languagesBy meaning 1
By meaning 1
By meaning 1
Origin
From the archaic sense of civil, “peaceful and well-ordered”. Later senses of civil societFrom the archaic sense of civil, “peaceful and well-ordered”. Later senses of civil society reflect 19th-century Hegelian influence, as well as the earlier argument that tyrannical governments exist in the state of nature in relation to their subjects.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: civil societies| Singular | civil society |
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| Plural | civil societies |
regular
Antonyms
1 antonymsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.