occupant

[ok-yuh-puhnt]

noun

1. a person, family, group, or organization that lives in, occupies, or has quarters or space in or on something.

   the occupant of a taxicab; the occupants of the building.

2. a tenant of a house, estate, office, etc.; resident.

3. Law.

   1. an owner through occupancy.

   2. one who is in actual possession.

occupant

/ ˈɒkjʊpənt /

noun

1. a person, thing, etc, holding a position or place

2. law a person who has possession of something, esp an estate, house, etc; tenant

3. law a person who acquires by occupancy the title to something previously without an owner

Other Word Forms

• nonoccupant noun
• preoccupant noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of occupant¹

1590–1600; < Middle French occupant, present participle of occuper. See occupy, -ant

Example Sentences

Orianna Halloran is a matriarch drunk with power when members of the extended Halloran family receive the strange news that doomsday is nigh, and only their grand house and its occupants will survive.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

Some occupants escaped the fire by jumping from an elevated first floor, they said, adding that some had to be rescued from the backyard with kayaks.

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Landlords cannot have occupants in a rental “without a refrigerator just like they can’t have you in there without hot running water or a heater,” McKinnor said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Since then, law firms have hunted aggressively for lucrative cases, flooding social media with ads and quietly tapping third parties to find former occupants of county-run juvenile halls and foster homes.

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The result, if Hegseth’s efforts succeed, will indeed be a whiter, more aggressive armed forces, and quite likely one significantly more loyal to the current occupant of the Oval Office than to the Constitution.

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• denizen 
• dweller 
• holder 
• incumbent 
• inhabitant 
• renter 
• resident 
• tenant