inhabit
Americanverb (used with object)
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inhabits,
present (3rd person singular)
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inhabited,
past participle, past
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inhabiting
present participle
verb (used without object)
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inhabits,
present (3rd person singular)
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inhabited,
past participle, past
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inhabiting
present participle
verb
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(tr) to live or dwell in; occupy
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archaic (intr) to abide or dwell
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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inhabitabilitynoun
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inhabitationnoun
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preinhabitationnoun
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preinhabitverb (used with object)
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reinhabitverb (used with object)
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inhabitableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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inhabitsimple
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inhabitssimple
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have inhabitedperfect
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has inhabitedperfect
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am inhabitingprogressive
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are inhabitingprogressive
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is inhabitingprogressive
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have been inhabitingperfect progressive
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has been inhabitingperfect progressive
Past
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inhabitedsimple
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had inhabitedperfect
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was inhabitingprogressive
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were inhabitingprogressive
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had been inhabitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of inhabit
First recorded in 1325–75; from Latin inhabitāre, equivalent to in- in- 2 + habitāre “to dwell” ( see habit 2); replacing Middle English enhabiten, from Middle French enhabiter, from Latin as above
Explanation
When you inhabit a place, you live there. When actors inhabit their roles, they seem to become the characters, no longer actors reciting their lines. It is like they live the life of the character. The verb inhabit comes from the Old French enhabiter, meaning “dwell in.” You can inhabit an actual place, like a home, a cave, or a neighborhood. You can also inhabit an imaginary world, like those who choose to inhabit cyberspace with a made-up persona, telling about experiences that are nothing like the person's real life. Actors who truly inhabit their roles sometimes struggle to return to reality after a movie or television show wraps.
Vocabulary lists containing inhabit
"The Crucible" -- Vocabulary from all 4 Acts
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"The Crucible" -- Vocabulary from Act 1
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List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The novel introduces us to twin sisters who play, and come to deeply inhabit, the roles of a single girl’s body and soul during Victorian-era séances staged by their parents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
They learn to inhabit perspectives that are not their own, and to recognize the humanity within them.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
At this rainforest-like indoor farm, where creatures such as coral, tropical fish and sea cucumbers inhabit different aquariums, Kinjo bred "miracle coral" with extra resistance to warmer water.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
They destroy the bacterial cells they inhabit while producing large numbers of new virus particles.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
By i960, every species of wild mammal known to inhabit the area had suffered losses.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
But Seemiller argues that’s no longer the landscape Gen Z inhabits.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
No story is truly finished until the last reader inhabits it because we all put our unique imprimatur on any novel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
This is one smart, encompassing album about the world this talented singer-songwriter inhabits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
It feels less carefully constructed than slowly formed - shaped long before the runways and fashion campaigns, in a life far removed from the one she inhabits now.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
It reflects nothing of the person who inhabits it.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
Anderson's research focuses on one of the biggest transitions in biological history: how Earth changed from a planet dominated by bacteria into one inhabited by complex multicellular organisms.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
The Jail Time Records studio is rudimentary - a small, sweaty recording booth attached to a room inhabited by a solitary computer.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Like many Americans, she read “Little House in the Big Woods” when she was a child and immediately fell in love with Laura “Half-pint” Ingalls, her family, friends and the world they inhabited.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
There have been increasing complaints from farmers about damaged crops and residents over bear incursions into inhabited areas, sparking angry social media exchanges with those who defend the animals' protected status.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
What we saw was not the same house we had believed we had inhabited if only for a day.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
The brisk, absurdist tale sketches the duo’s difficulties in inhabiting their newly assumed roles and in the provisional nature of role-playing in general.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Dame Felicity's agent told the BBC that "in her work, she was sublime; inhabiting every performance with precision, depth and beauty".
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
When the nefarious Pilkington Industries repossesses Manor Farm after a failure to make payments, the animals inhabiting the stead are nearly trucked off to their demise.
From Salon ● May 3, 2026
Halliday: I physically was a different character when I was in the scenes in Toronto versus when I was in Gilead because I was inhabiting the space in a very different way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
This is a tropical or subtropical insect, inhabiting South and Central America and Mexico, and in the United States normally restricted to the Southwest.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
