domicile

American  

[dom-uh-sahyl, -suhl, doh-muh-] / ˈdɒm əˌsaɪl, -səl, ˈdoʊ mə- /

Or domicil

noun

• domiciles
  plural

1. a place of residence; house or home; abode.

2. Law. a permanent legal residence.

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verb (used with object)

domiciled, domiciling

1. to establish in a domicile.

domicile British  

/ ˈdɒmɪˌsaɪl, ˈdɒmɪˌsɪl /

noun

1. a dwelling place

2. a permanent legal residence

3. commerce the place where a bill of exchange is to be paid

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verb

1. to establish or be established in a dwelling place

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• undomiciled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• domiciles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of domicile

First recorded in 1470–80; from Middle French, from Latin domicilium, equivalent to domicol(a) ( domi-, combining form of domus “house” + -cola “dweller”; see colonus) + -ium -ium

Explanation

Domicile is a fancy word for the place where you live. Whether it's a mansion on 5th Avenue or a one-room shack in the desert, if you live in it, it's your domicile. If you live somewhere — such as in a house, on a houseboat, or in an apartment — then you have a domicile, or simply, housing. In the eyes of the law, your domicile is your legal place of residence. You can turn domicile into a verb, and say that you are currently domiciled in the Caribbean — but you'd probably only use that terminology if you were on trial for something like tax evasion.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

domicile domiciles domiciled domiciling

“Establish Florida domicile first, cleanly and provably. Then time the big withdrawals for after that’s done. The home sale and the distribution strategy aren’t two decisions — they’re one decision with two moving parts.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026

The majority opinion roundly rejected Alito and Thomas’ arguments about domicile.

From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026

Companies like Spotify, Cloudflare, and Enterprise Products are excluded from the S&P 500 due to domicile, profitability, or corporate structure.

From Barron's ● Jun. 8, 2026

All of this makes us wonder if corporate residence and legal domicile could, and perhaps should, become an issue in corporate governance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

From the humble beginnings of the storefront on Hart Street, to the respectable but by no means splashy domicile off Beniteau, Assumption was finally going to get a grand church building.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

His co-author and Wharton economics colleague Kent Smetters says tools such as Zoom make it easier than before to move domiciles and avoid a state or local wealth tax.

From Barron's ● Jan. 3, 2026

Zhao himself kept to a series of international domiciles, apparently most recently in Dubai; the headquarters of the firm itself have been hard to pin down.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 28, 2023

The impressive exhibit features shells the size of small dogs, adult hand-sized sand dollars, giant horseshoe crab domiciles, column-like shells, leather corals, square sea stars and other curiosities among thousands.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2023

Housing Authority, the Department of Employment Services and agency domiciles of the deputy mayor for public safety.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2022

Fact: Many of the domiciles in Century Village do not have family rooms with desks.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

Thomas read into that the requirement that their parents be domiciled here.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026

“Where you’re domiciled on Dec. 31 can determine which state taxes your entire retirement income for that year,” said Jeff Judge, a certified financial planner and managing partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026

Black people who were enslaved were undoubtedly domiciled here, but the same is not true of temporary visitors.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

“If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.

From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026

Meanwhile it had died out in Fiji, and when it revived through the influence of the Tongans domiciled in the group, it was in its Tongan form with cocoanut-shells.

From The Fijians A Study of the Decay of Custom by Basil Thomson

The benefits of domiciling in the U.S. rarely outweighed the risks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026

Many asset managers enjoy lower tax rates by domiciling funds in countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg.

From Reuters ● Jun. 2, 2021

That would be like domiciling at an EconoLodge.

From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2013

But his surveys of Manhattan subways, sewage, traffic and domiciling reveal conditions so overwhelmingly horrible that even Dreamer Strauss loses heart.

From Time Magazine Archive

I shall now pass to the conduct of the Executive Committee in their arrests, their domiciling visits, and their enforced banishments.

From The Vigilance Committee of 1856 by James O'Meara