En español, milicia puede referirse al arte de hacer la guerra y de disciplinar a los soldados para ella, al servicio o profesión militar o a un conjunto de tropa o gente de guerra. Sin embargo, el término milicia se ha utilizado también, en un sentido más restringido, para referirse a una fuerza militar compuesta solamente de ciudadanos, los cuales se dedican a la defensa de su pueblo o nación, la aplicación de la ley de emergencia, o de paramilitares de servicios, en momentos de emergencia, y que no reciben ningún salario regular ni se han comprometido a un plazo fijo de servicio. Se trata de una polisemia con múltiples significados distintos pero relacionados. En general, una milicia es el grupo formado por la unión de varios ciudadanos que se organizan para proporcionar defensa o servicios paramilitares a una causa o región, sin recibir paga de forma regular o estar adscritos a la misma por un período prefijado (a diferencia de un soldado regular), y de forma voluntaria (a diferencia de los miembros de una leva o reemplazo obligatorio). El miembro de uno de estos grupos es, por extensión, un miliciano. La milicia puede comportarse ocasionalmente como ejército regular o como guerrilla, según la relación de fuerzas que tenga con cada oponente en concreto.

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A militia /mᵻˈlɪʃə/ generally is an army or other fighting unit that is composed of non-professional fighters, citizens of a nation or subjects of a state or government who can be called upon to enter a combat situation, as opposed to a professional force of regular, full-time military personnel, or historically, members of the warrior nobility class (e.g., knights or samurai). Unable to hold their own against properly trained and equipped professional forces, it is common for militias to engage in guerrilla warfare or defense instead of being used in open attacks and offensive actions. With the emergence of professional forces in the Renaissance, Western European militias wilted, to be revived as part of Florentine civic humanism, which held that professional militaries were a result of corruption, and admired the Roman model. The civic humanist ideal of the militia was spread through Europe by the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli (According to Hörnqvist, The Prince, ch. 12 and 13, Discourses on Livy, and The Art of War.) Beginning in the late 20th century, some militias (particularly officially recognized and sanctioned militias of a government) act as professional forces, while still being "part-time" or "on-call" organizations. For instance, the members of some U.S. Army National Guard units are considered professional soldiers, as they are trained to maintain the same standards as their "full-time" (active duty) counterparts. Militias thus can be military or paramilitary, depending on the instance. Some of the situations the term "militia" is used include forces engaged in: \n* Defense activity or service, to protect a community, its territory, property, and laws. \n* The entire able-bodied population of a community, town, county, or state, available to be called to arms. \n* A subset of these who may be legally penalized for failing to respond to a call-up. \n* A subset of these who actually respond to a call-up, regardless of legal obligation. \n* A private, non-government force, not necessarily directly supported or sanctioned by its government. \n* An irregular armed force enabling its leader to exercise military, economic, and political control over a subnational territory within a sovereign state (See: Warlord). \n* An official reserve army, composed of citizen soldiers. Called by various names in different countries such as; the Army Reserve, National Guard, or state defense forces. \n* The national police forces in several former communist states such as the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, but also in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia. The term was inherited in Russia, and other former CIS countries and are known as militsiya. \n* In France the equivalent term "Milice" has become tainted due to its use by notorious collaborators with Nazi Germany. \n* A select militia is composed of a small, non-representative portion of the population, often politicized.

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