policy

English Online Dictionary. What means policy‎? What does policy mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒləsi/, /ˈpɒlɪsi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑləsi/

Etymology 1

From Middle English policie, from Old French policie, pollicie and police, from Late Latin politia (“citizenship; government”), classical Latin polītīa (in Cicero), from Ancient Greek πολιτεία (politeía, “citizenship; polis, (city) state; government”), from πολίτης (polítēs, “citizen”). Compare police and polity.

Noun

policy (countable and uncountable, plural policies)

1. A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body and implemented by its actions. [from 15th c.]

2. A document describing such a policy.

3. Wise, advantageous, or politic conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness. [from 15th c.]
4. (now rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft. [from 15th c.]
5. (Scotland, now chiefly in the plural) The grounds of a large country house. [from 18th c.]
   • 1775, Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland section on Aberbrothick

     Now and then about a gentleman’s house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young.
6. (obsolete) The art of governance; political science. [14th–18th c.]
7. (obsolete) A state; a polity. [14th–16th c.]
8. (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration. [15th–19th c.]
9. (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem. [15th–19th c.]
10. (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Burmese: ပေါ်လစီ (paula.ci)

Translations

Verb

policy (third-person singular simple present policies, present participle policying, simple past and past participle policied)

1. (transitive) To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

Etymology 2

From Middle French police, from Italian polizza, from Medieval Latin apodissa (“receipt for money”), from Ancient Greek ἀπόδειξις (apódeixis, “proof, declaration”). Doublet of apodixis.

Noun

policy (plural policies)

1. (law)
   1. A contract of insurance.
   2. A document containing or certifying this contract.

2. (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural)
3. A number pool lottery

Synonyms

• (number pool) policy racket

Derived terms

• policyholder

Translations

Further reading

• policy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “policy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “policy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• policy in Britannica Dictionary
• policy in Macmillan Collocations Dictionary
• policy in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
• policy in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• policy in WordReference English Collocations