Link Centre Dictionary

militia

mi·li·tia

UK/məˈlɪʃə/ US/mɪˈlɪʃʌ/ fairly common

noun

1.

civilians trained as soldiers but not part of the regular army

Synonyms
2.

the entire body of physically fit civilians eligible by law for military service

  • “their troops were untrained militia”
  • “Congress shall have power to provide for calling forth the militia” -United States Constitution

Origin

From Latin mīlitia (“army, military force/service”), from mīles (“soldier”). Doublet of militsia. The use of "militia" rather than "police" to refer to the police force (of Belarus and some other countries) originated in the USSR.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.