resident

American  

[rez-i-duhnt] / ˈrɛz ɪ dənt /

noun

1. a person who resides in a place.

2. a physician who joins the medical staff of a hospital as a salaried employee for a specified period to gain advanced training usually in a particular field, being in full-time attendance at the hospital and often living on the premises.

3. a diplomatic representative, inferior in rank to an ambassador, residing at a foreign court.

4. (formerly) a representative of the British governor general at a court in India.

5. (formerly) the governor of a residency in the Dutch East Indies.

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adjective

1. residing; dwelling in a place.

2. living or staying at a place in discharge of duty.

3. (of qualities) existing; intrinsic.

4. (of birds) not migratory.

5. Computers.

   1. encoded and permanently available to a computer user, as a font in a printer's ROM or software on a CD-ROM.

   2. (of a computer program) currently active or standing by in computer memory.

resident British  

/ ˈrɛzɪdənt /

noun

1. a person who resides in a place

2. Former name: inmate.  social welfare an occupant of a welfare agency home

3. (esp formerly) a representative of the British government in a British protectorate

4. (esp in the 17th century) a diplomatic representative ranking below an ambassador

5. (in India, formerly) a representative of the British governor general at the court of a native prince

6. a bird or other animal that does not migrate

7. a physician who lives in the hospital where he or she works while undergoing specialist training after completing his or her internship Compare house physician

8. a junior doctor, esp a house officer, who lives in the hospital in which he or she works

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adjective

1. living in a place; residing

2. living or staying at a place in order to discharge a duty, etc

3. (of qualities, characteristics, etc) existing or inherent (in)

4. (of birds and other animals) not in the habit of migrating

Other Word Forms

• pseudoresident adjective
• residentship noun

Etymology

Origin of resident

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Middle French, from Latin resident- (stem of residēns ), present participle of residēre “to reside”; reside, -ent

Example Sentences

Christine Gast, a New Jersey resident who shops for her five nephews, is big on thrift stores, especially for the clothes and stuffed animals she purchases to fill out those baskets.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 2, 2026

Brown, of course, was neither a citizen nor a resident of Virginia.

From Slate • Apr. 2, 2026

The country’s resident tennis prodigy, Jannik Sinner, has four major titles and counting.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

"Nobody knows what's happening," resident Hassan Jalwan told AFP, adding that "displaced people have been sleeping in the open" in the area.

From Barron's • Apr. 1, 2026

Serena then convinced a Haitian American woman, Carole Smarth, a young resident at Mass General and the Brigham, to fly with her to Port-au-Prince.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Related Words

• citizen
• dweller
• inhabitant
• inmate
• local
• native
• resident
• tenant