"police" meaning in English

See police in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /pəˈliːs/ Audio: en-us-police.ogg [US], en-uk-police.ogg [UK] Forms: [singular], police [plural]
Head templates: {{noun2|police}} [POS TABLE]
  1. The police are the government force who enforce laws, prevent crime, stop and arrest criminals, regulate traffic, help maintain public order, and help with emergencies.
    Sense id: simple-police-en-noun-wbwpdaKt
  2. The police means the city government department that is concerned with enforcing laws and helping with emergencies.
    Sense id: simple-police-en-noun-0P4CTSYD

Verb

IPA: /pəˈliːs/ Audio: en-us-police.ogg [US], en-uk-police.ogg [UK] Forms: police [canonical], polices [third-person, singular], policed [past], policed [past, participle], policing [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb|polic|e}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you police an area or activity, you watch it to make sure no laws are being broken.
    Sense id: simple-police-en-verb-DBL8O3hF
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "police",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "police"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun2"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When we saw the man take the money, we called the police."
        },
        {
          "text": "The police car stopped the truck that was driving too fast."
        },
        {
          "text": "New Zealand Police took stolen guns, money, and cars, after searching a homes in the city of Auckland."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The police are the government force who enforce laws, prevent crime, stop and arrest criminals, regulate traffic, help maintain public order, and help with emergencies."
      ],
      "id": "simple-police-en-noun-wbwpdaKt",
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "plural only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The Police Department there replaced the previous system of having volunteers keep the city safe."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The police means the city government department that is concerned with enforcing laws and helping with emergencies."
      ],
      "id": "simple-police-en-noun-0P4CTSYD"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pəˈliːs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "plural-only"
  ],
  "word": "police"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "police",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polices",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "policed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "policed",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "policing",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "polic",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There are fewer crimes in the countryside, but it's difficult to police such a big area."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you police an area or activity, you watch it to make sure no laws are being broken."
      ],
      "id": "simple-police-en-verb-DBL8O3hF"
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pəˈliːs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "police"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "–",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "police",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "police"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "noun2"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "When we saw the man take the money, we called the police."
        },
        {
          "text": "The police car stopped the truck that was driving too fast."
        },
        {
          "text": "New Zealand Police took stolen guns, money, and cars, after searching a homes in the city of Auckland."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The police are the government force who enforce laws, prevent crime, stop and arrest criminals, regulate traffic, help maintain public order, and help with emergencies."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "uncountable",
        "plural only"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The Police Department there replaced the previous system of having volunteers keep the city safe."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The police means the city government department that is concerned with enforcing laws and helping with emergencies."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pəˈliːs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tags": [
    "plural-only"
  ],
  "word": "police"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "police",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polices",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "policed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "policed",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "policing",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "polic",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "There are fewer crimes in the countryside, but it's difficult to police such a big area."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you police an area or activity, you watch it to make sure no laws are being broken."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/pəˈliːs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-police.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "police"
}

Download raw JSONL data for police meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-12 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (1c4b89b and 9dbd323). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.