non-government

IPA/ˌnɒnˈɡʌv.ə.mənt/
KK[nɑnɡˈʌvɚnmənt]IPA/ˌnɑːnˈɡʌv.ɚn.mənt/

non-government — adjective

1. describing an organization, group, or activity that is run privately or by citiz

1.adjectiveC1
Definition

describing an organization, group, or activity that is run privately or by citizens rather than by the official ruling body of a country.

Example

Ava volunteered for two years at a non-government clinic in rural Kenya.

attributive use: non-government + organisation noun

The conference brought together delegates from non-government groups across Southeast Asia.

collocation: non-government groups / agencies / bodies

Common collocations
  • non-government organization
  • non-government agency
  • non-government body
  • non-government group
  • non-government aid worker
  • non-government donor
Synonyms
  • nongovernmental

    more common spelling, especially in formal and US writing; same meaning

  • private

    broader; covers companies and individuals, not only non-profit bodies

  • independent

    stresses freedom from state control; can also mean free from any single backer

Antonyms
  • governmental

    describing something run or owned by the state

  • state-run

    specifically about services or businesses controlled by the government

  • public

    in the sense of 'funded and run by the state', as in 'public hospitals'

Grammar Patterns

non-government + noun

Usage Note

Almost always attributive (before a noun like 'organization', 'agency', 'body', 'group'); rarely used as a predicate ('the agency is non-government' sounds odd — prefer 'the agency is independent of the government'). Often interchangeable with 'nongovernmental', the more common form in news and academic writing.

Common Mistakes

The new charity is non-government.
The new charity is independent of the government.
'non-government' normally sits before a noun, not after 'be'.
a non-government person
a private citizen
'non-government' describes organisations or activities, not individuals.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

All four describe activity or organisations that lie outside direct state control, but they sort by register and scope. 'Non-government' and 'nongovernmental' are essentially synonyms, with 'nongovernmental' being the more common variant in formal English — it sits inside the fixed term 'NGO' (non-governmental organization) used by the UN and major newsrooms. 'Non-government' often appears as a slightly more casual hyphenated alternative, common in Asian-Pacific and Australian writing. 'Private' is wider: a private company, a private school, and a private donor are all outside state control but driven by commercial or personal interests, not the not-for-profit civic mission that 'non-government' usually implies. 'Independent' stresses freedom from any single backer — independent of the government, the church, or a corporate sponsor — and is the right word when the point is editorial or operational autonomy rather than ownership. When the topic is aid or human rights, prefer 'non-government' or 'nongovernmental'; for businesses and individuals, use 'private'.

non-government ↗nongovernmental ↗private ↗independent ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • non-government organization (NGO)
  • non-government sector

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Formed in modern English by joining the negative prefix 'non-' (from Latin 'non', meaning 'not') to the noun 'government', which entered English from Old French 'governement' and ultimately from Latin 'gubernare', 'to steer or direct'. The compound spread after World War II as new international bodies needed a label for civic organisations that were neither state-run nor purely commercial — the United Nations charter of 1945 popularised the related term 'non-governmental organization'.