🇫🇷French Source WordCode: FR

police

Pronunciation / Transliteration: pɔ.lis

🇬🇧 Direct English Meaning:
Police/pəˈliːs/
nounverbCEFR A2 (Elementary)Top #250 frequency
Full Thesaurus
🇫🇷 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 Ancient Greek politeia meaning citizenship or government, passing through Latin politia and Middle French police into English in the 15th century initially to mean civil administration or public order, before narrowing in the 19th century to refer to the civil force responsible for maintaining law and order.

Quick Vocabulary Retention Check

Which of the following is the closest synonym for "Police"?

Thesaurus & Synonyms Graph

Explore Nuanced Synonyms for "Police"

Discover exact matches, context-specific alternatives, and antonyms with intensity ratings in the VocabDictionary Thesaurus.

View "Police" Synonym Map