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say it: SIV-uhl
civil is an adjective meaning "applying to ordinary citizens as contrasted with the military". It carries 6 recorded senses.
of or occurring within the state or between or among citizens of the state
“civil affairs”
“civil strife”
“civil disobedience”
“civil branches of government”
of or relating to or befitting citizens as individuals
“civil rights”
“civil liberty”
“civic duties”
“civic pride”
(of divisions of time) legally recognized in ordinary affairs of life
“the civil calendar”
“a civil day begins at mean midnight”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for civil come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.