civil
part of speech
adjective (civil)
meaning for a pupil
1) Polite in a formal way, but not especially friendly: he gave a civil reply. tree →
2) To do with ordinary people (citizens), not the army or the church: civil life, civil wedding. tree →
3) Inside one country, between its own people: a civil war. tree →
4) Civil rights: the rights every citizen should have, such as being treated equally. tree →
5) (law) To do with private disagreements between people, not crimes: a civil case. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons civil wars (England, the USA, Ireland) and the civil rights movement are key topics. In citizenship lessons civil rights and the civil service appear. In everyday life "be civil" means at least be polite. Phrases: civil war, civil rights, civil servant, civil engineer, keep a civil tongue.
examples
- Even when they argue, they try to stay civil. tree →
- The American Civil War was fought between the northern and southern states. tree →
- Martin Luther King worked for civil rights. tree →
- A civil engineer designs bridges and roads. tree →
- They had a civil wedding at the town hall. tree →
- Mum works as a civil servant for the government. tree →
- "You are a good and civil boy," said the mayor. tree →
note
Adverb: civilly; noun: civility (politeness). Related: civilian, civilisation. "Civil" politeness is basic, not warm. Opposite of civil (polite): rude; of civil (not military): military.
In the corpora
- "Civil unrest" means riots and protests.
- The West had many troubles at once: civil wars, money problems, disease and many peoples pushing across its borders.
- A civil war and smallpox had already weakened the Inca, and Spain took over their empire.
- In 1949 Mao Zedong won the civil war and declared the People's Republic; the Nationalists went to Taiwan.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «civil» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.