estate

American  

[ih-steyt] / ɪˈsteɪt /

noun

• estates
  plural

1. a piece of landed property, especially one of large extent with an elaborate house on it.

   to have an estate in the country.

2. Law.

   1. property or possessions.

   2. the legal position or status of an owner, considered with respect to property owned in land or other things.

   3. the degree or quantity of interest that a person has in land with respect to the nature of the right, its duration, or its relation to the rights of others.

   4. interest, ownership, or property in land or other things.

   5. the property of a deceased person, a bankrupt, etc., viewed as an aggregate.

3. British. a housing development.

4. a period or condition of life.

   to attain to man's estate.

5. a major political or social group or class, especially one once having specific political powers, as the clergy, nobles, and commons in France or the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and commons in England.

6. condition or circumstances with reference to worldly prosperity, estimation, etc.; social status or rank.

7. Obsolete. pomp or state.

8. Obsolete. high social status or rank.

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verb (used with object)

estated, estating

1. Obsolete. to establish in or as in an estate.

estate British  

/ ɪˈsteɪt /

noun

1. a large piece of landed property, esp in the country

2. a large area of property development, esp of new houses or ( trading estate ) of factories

3. property law

   1. property or possessions

   2. the nature of interest that a person has in land or other property, esp in relation to the right of others

   3. the total extent of the real and personal property of a deceased person or bankrupt

4. Also called: estate of the realm.  an order or class of persons in a political community, regarded collectively as a part of the body politic: usually regarded as being the lords temporal (peers), lords spiritual, and commons See also States General fourth estate

5. state, period, or position in life, esp with regard to wealth or social standing

   youth's estate

   a poor man's estate

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Synonym Usage

See property.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• estates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of estate

1175–1225; Middle English estat < Middle French; cognate with Provençal estat. See state

Explanation

The word estate is mostly used to mean a massive and fabulous house on a big piece of land. When you own an estate, it usually means you have a whole lot of money to go along with it. While an estate refers mostly to land and a house on it, it can also refer to all of a person’s possessions — and this sense of the word is often used after someone has died to refer to everything they are leaving behind. “You are set to inherit half of your grandfather’s estate, which includes his entire collection of stuffed raccoons.” In the past (and sometimes still) estate was also used to refer to someone’s state or condition, as well as his or her social standing.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

estate estates estated

Carradine’s family and estate are seeking unspecified general and wrongful-death damages and compensation for medical expenses incurred during his hospitalization.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

He put his unfinished estate on the market late last year for $200 million.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Naturally, owning real estate allows you to live in the home without paying rent.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026

There could be "a shift in tourism and real estate, from southern Europe to cooler northern destinations", Ozkardeskaya said.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

According to Icelandic law, a wife receives 100 percent of her husband’s estate if there are no children and only one-third if there is one child or more.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady

When Anderson died more than a decade ago, the Connecticut estate tax kicked in for estates valued above $2 million.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026

I’m a writer who has been sent out on assignment to the stucco estates of suburban Los Angeles to profile a young socialist named Hasan Piker.

From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026

For some families with complex estates, consolidating accounts and assets under one trustee can help everything run more smoothly.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

The area is lined with sweeping dunes and waterfront estates that make it comparable to Cape Cod and the Hamptons.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

He'd returned from Rosby to deliver a fresh levy of spearmen recruited from Lord Cyles's estates and resume his command of the City Watch.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin

There he lived like an estated gentleman, for Prairie du Pont was then nothing but a cluster of tenants around his feet.

From The Chase of Saint-Castin and Other Stories of the French in the New World by Mary Hartwell Catherwood

Roger North tells us that “they admitted all strangers that were confidingly introduced, for it was a main end of their institutions to make proselytes, especially of the raw estated youth newly come to town.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 5 "Greek Law" to "Ground-Squirrel" by Various

He was an estated gentleman, and songs were made about his family.

From Three Plays by Padraic Colum

In connection with each of these settlements Pynar uses the phrase, 'I find planted and estated.'

From The Land-War In Ireland (1870) A History For The Times by James Godkin

Every class, from the estated proprietor to the humblest peasant, is loud in asserting that the story is an infamous falsehood.

From Lord Kilgobbin by Charles James Lever

Related Words

• area
• farm
• parcel
• plantation
• ranch
• residence