severalty

[ sev-er-uhl-tee, sev-ruhl- ]

noun,plural sev·er·al·ties.
  1. the state of being separate.

  2. Law.

    • (of an estate, especially land) the condition of being held or owned by separate and individual right.

    • an estate held or owned by individual right.

Origin of severalty

1
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English word from Anglo-French word severalte.See several, -ty2

Words Nearby severalty

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use severalty in a sentence

  • The group is made up of individuals, and the group's life is the life of individuals carried on in at least ostensible severalty.

  • The land is not held in severalty, as in America, but by communities.

    The Old World and Its Ways | William Jennings Bryan
  • How it came about that these men, besides holding land in severalty, held a tract in common, we are left to guess.

    Domesday Book and Beyond | Frederic William Maitland
  • To Gaul and to Britain they seem to have brought with them the idea that the cultivable land should be allotted in severalty.

    Domesday Book and Beyond | Frederic William Maitland
  • Lastly, as a general rule men do not possess pasture land in severalty; they turn out their beasts on the common of the vill.

    Domesday Book and Beyond | Frederic William Maitland

British Dictionary definitions for severalty

severalty

/ (ˈsɛvrəltɪ) /


nounplural -ties
  1. the state of being several or separate

  2. (usually preceded by in) property law the tenure of property, esp land, in a person's own right and not jointly with another or others

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012