Thesaurus results for CIVIL SERVANTS

civil servants

noun

plural of civil servant

as in officials

a worker in a government agency took the examination to become a civil servant in the defense department

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of civil servants The postwar model of a large welfare and regulatory state, run by a class of civil servants charged with modernizing the economy, tempering market forces and defining the common good, has run its course. — Nicholas Bequelin, Time, 16 Oct. 2026 At the meeting, ministry Undersecretary Khaled Al-Raqab told the union that the amount was not a tax, but rather a donation sought by the ministry to help pay civil servants in the strip. — ABC News, 15 Oct. 2026 Britain’s 2025 Copilot trial, with 20,000 civil servants, showed workers saved about 26 minutes a day. — Inzamam Rashid, Fortune, 14 Oct. 2026 Local governments are running deficits, with many struggling to pay teachers and civil servants their salaries and benefits on time. — Carl Minzner, Foreign Affairs, 5 Oct. 2026 The federal government had also been squeezing the region economically, by withholding funds needed to pay Tigray’s civil servants and limiting access to banks and fuel, according to the TPLF. — Alemayehu Fentaw Weldemariam, The Conversation, 29 Sep. 2026 Experts say the Houthis have struggled to pay salaries to civil servants, including public sector doctors and diverted most tax revenues to their military wing. — Fatma Khaled, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026 The junta has tried to compel civil servants living in Myanmar to come back to work. — Andrew Nachemson, The Dial, 22 Sep. 2026 The money was nominally to pay civil servants and prop up infrastructure in a territory sequestered by an Israeli blockade, but many observers agreed that Hamas diverted a significant sum to its military wing. — Ruth Margalit, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for civil servants

Noun

The proposal returned to the Baltimore County Council Tuesday, reigniting discussion over compensation for the county’s highest-ranking officials as some government employees continue pressing for higher pay.

— Natalie Jones, Baltimore Sun, 28 Oct. 2026
Unusual weather conditions played a role, officials said, with the number of extreme heat warning days tripling from five in 2025 to 15 so far this year.

— Melissa Gomez, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2026

Definition of officials

Noun

Nonprofit leaders on Thursday said the administration's decision to drop the appeal will provide relief to many public servants.

— Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 22 Oct. 2026
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo told Parliament on Thursday that the ban on Waze applies only to public servants carrying out official duties.

— ABC News, ABC News, 22 Oct. 2026

Definition of public servants

Noun

The State Department on Wednesday ordered nonemergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia amid escalating attacks by the Houthis on Saudi infrastructure.

— Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 22 Oct. 2026
Flock employees urged the company to adopt stronger security after a 2024 breach.

— Douglas MacMillan, Washington Post, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of employees

Noun

Vying for dominance as well are the haughty, self-serving bureaucrats of the area’s bustling capital of South Wood (Jemaine Clement, Marc Evan Jackson), who pull their political strings from the relative safety of the grand Pittock Mansion.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2026
Half of them want to hand health care over to government bureaucrats, the other half to corporate bureaucrats.

— WCCO Staff, CBS News, 13 Oct. 2026

Definition of bureaucrats

Noun

But the movement has widened to include workers demanding relief from rising living costs, making the government’s task broader than resolving a dispute over university admissions.

— Thomas Adamson, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2026
Also according to the emergency service, consecutive Russian strikes on a shopping center in Kharkiv injured four people late on Saturday, including three rescue workers.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 26 Oct. 2026

Definition of workers

Noun

So were several lawyers and the election clerks of two of Utah’s twenty-nine counties.

— Barton Gellman, New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2026
Bill Essayli, the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, said that the clerks who didn't comply with the government's demands could face prosecution as well.

— ABC News, ABC News, 24 Oct. 2026

Definition of clerks

Browse Nearby Words

civil servant

civil servants

civil union

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Civil servants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/civil%20servants. Accessed 29 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of civil servants

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

shindig

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE

Popular

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes