🇫🇷French Source WordCode: FR

police

Pronunciation / Transliteration: pɔ.lis

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Police/pəˈliːs/
nounverbCEFR A2 (Elementary)Top #250 frequency
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🇫🇷 Example Sentence in French:

"La police a arrêté le suspect ce matin."

Comprehensive Definitions & Senses

2 senses
As noun
  1. 1

    The civil force of a state, responsible for maintaining public order and law, preventing and detecting crime, and enforcing the laws.

    "The police arrived at the scene within minutes of the emergency call."
As verb
  1. 1

    To maintain law and order in an area or among a group of people by means of a police force.

    "Officers were assigned to police the large public gathering."

Thesaurus & Semantic Spectrum

Antonyms & Contrasting Words (1)

Linguistic Origin & Historical Etymology

Derived from the Middle French word police (civil administration), originating from Latin politia, and ultimately from Ancient Greek politeia (citizenship, government), all tracing back to polis (city). Over centuries in English, the meaning shifted from general civil governance specifically to the system of civil regulation and the law enforcement agency.

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