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public servant ~ civil servant
“Public servant” (noun) is ‘a government employee, especially one that is elected; an official or worker who works in public services, such as electricity, transportation, the police, etc.’,
Terry Moran, Australia’s highest public servant — secretary of the Prime Minister’s departments
e.g.
A postman is a public servant.
A superintendent of police is a public servant.
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“Civil servant” (noun) is ‘an employee of a “civil service” which means the administrative departments of a government or international agency, and the people who run them; a person who gets the this type of employment by passing the highest competitive examination in some countries’,
Sir Muir Russel, an efficient civil servant, permanent secretary to the Scottish Executive
e.g.
The secretary of a minister is a civil servant.
An administrative officer of a region is a civil servant.
[The word ‘servant’ in these two nouns phrases does not mean the worker with a menial job (like sweeping, cleaning or doing the washing, washing-up, etc.), or a worker who works for another person living in the same house, as some people believe. Here ‘servant’ means “employee” – an officer.]
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