police
Police police Police police police police Police police.
The sentence parses recursively: police officers from the city of Police whom other Police police officers police, in turn police other Police police officers — exploiting 'police' as both noun and verb.
Meanings (pronounced /pəˈliːs/)
the civil force of a state, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order
- The police arrived within minutes.
- Local police closed the road for the parade.
to maintain order and enforce regulations in (an area or activity)
- The school polices its dress code strictly.
- Volunteer marshals policed the festival grounds.
Word origin
From Middle French police ('public order, administration'), from Latin politia, from Greek politeia ('citizenship, government'), from polis ('city'). The same Greek root produces 'politics', 'policy', 'metropolis', and 'cosmopolitan'. Originally 'police' meant 'civil administration' broadly; it narrowed to mean 'law enforcement' specifically in the 18th century, when police forces as we know them were established.
Fun fact
Like the buffalo sentence ('Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo...'), the 'Police police Police police...' sentence is grammatically valid English — it requires that 'Police' also be a place name (some linguists posit a hypothetical city called Police), but otherwise the sentence works as 'Officers from Police whom officers from Police police, in turn police officers from Police.' Linguists call these 'recursive same-word sentences,' and they exist for any word that's both noun and verb.