occupant
Americannoun
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occupants
plural
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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.
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a tenant of a house, estate, office, etc.; resident.
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Law.
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an owner through occupancy.
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one who is in actual possession.
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noun
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a person, thing, etc, holding a position or place
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law a person who has possession of something, esp an estate, house, etc; tenant
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law a person who acquires by occupancy the title to something previously without an owner
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of occupant
1590–1600; < Middle French occupant, present participle of occuper. See occupy, -ant
Explanation
An occupant is someone who lives or stays at a place for awhile. A lot of your junk mail is addressed "To occupant" because the sender doesn't know who lives at your address. Being an occupant means you're occupying a place. This has nothing to do with owning a house or renting an apartment; if you live there, you're an occupant. There are other occupants too, as in politics. The President is often called "the current occupant of the White House," who replaced the former occupant. That kind of occupant has as much to do with politics as living space.
Vocabulary lists containing occupant
"Of Mice and Men"
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"Building Design and Construction Handbook," Vocabulary from Section 1
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"The Black Ferris" by Ray Bradbury
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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:
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is also seen as a potential occupant of Number 11.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
The aforementioned “wig room” has been outfitted with an enormous mirror and a built-in vanity perfect for trying on different styles—however a future occupant could easily use this space as a flex room or office.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
The unwanted aquatic occupant grows at an exponential rate and blooms can double in size in a day, Bidelspach said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
All living US ex-presidents -- with the notable absence of current White House occupant Donald Trump -- joined a star-studded lineup Thursday for the opening of Barack Obama's presidential center in Chicago.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
Bree takes my traveling cloak, then sweeps my gown with a handheld broom, batting at it for dust, bugs, or any other unwanted occupant I may have picked up on my journey.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Averages can hide a lot of detail — like when Bill Gates walks into a bar and the “average” net worth of the occupants suddenly jumps into the billions of dollars.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
When I pay a cleaning fee, I expect someone to handle the work of preparing a property for its next occupants: washing linens, scrubbing bathrooms, cleaning floors.
From Salon ● Oct. 28, 2026
The spacecraft was then hoisted onto a specialized ship, and the four occupants -- Meir, American Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev -- were helped out one by one.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
When the North Tower was struck and occupants of the South Tower were told to remain in place, Rescorla ordered his people to evacuate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
They searched farmhouses and barns, questioned the occupants, making their way south to Port Conway.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
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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.
