inhabitant
Americannoun
-
inhabitants
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of inhabitant
1400–50; late Middle English < Latin inhabitant- (stem of inhabitāns ) dwelling in. See inhabit, -ant
Explanation
Someone who usually lives in a specific place — whether it's a mansion, a cave, or a beach house — is its inhabitant. The old man who lives in the scary house down the street is its inhabitant, and the skunk that built a nest under your porch is — unfortunately — an inhabitant of your front yard. The noun inhabitant comes from the verb inhabit, or "to live in," which in turn is rooted in the Latin word inhabitare, "to dwell in or to live in."
Vocabulary lists containing inhabitant
Unit 4: Powerful Openings
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Geography and World Regions
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The First State of Being
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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:
Saxony-Anhalt had the second highest number of far-right motivated criminal acts per inhabitant last year, according to police statistics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
And yet some residents of El Dorado, a gold mining town situated in the heart of the Mining Arc, appreciate their presence, one inhabitant told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026
In the U.K. if the ruling party changes its leader it means a new inhabitant of 10 Downing Street, even without a fresh national poll.
From MarketWatch ● May 6, 2026
In this case, a cave filled with the remains of past meals became a shelter for a completely different kind of inhabitant.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 3, 2026
We crossed the Catherine Street Bridge to the more populous part of town, which now appeared without inhabitant.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
Crayfish are familiar inhabitants of streams, rivers, and other freshwater environments.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
A paradise for luxury real estate, the capital only has around 10,000 social housing units for its 3.5 million inhabitants.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
A BAS team sailed for 15 days to reach the island and study its avian inhabitants, using drones, aerial photography and fitting tracking devices to 20 birds.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
“In an experience like this, you’re alone with the inhabitants of the world, and they’re all there as part of your hallucination, your dream and your journey,” Neiden says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
While certain insects overran us, some of the other normal inhabitants of our property, such as earthworms, disappeared.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
