personal property

American  

noun

Law.

1. an estate or property consisting of movable articles both corporeal, as furniture or jewelry, or incorporeal, as stocks or bonds (distinguished from real property).

   Synonyms:

   effects, chattel

---

personal property British  

noun

1. Also called: personalty.  law movable property, such as furniture or money Compare real property

---

personal property Cultural  

1. Furniture, automobiles, boats, and other possessions that are not included in the category of real property.

---

Etymology

Origin of personal property

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

personal property

Infrastructure, community homes, and personal property were all destroyed, Chief Pauline Drake told CBC News on Sunday.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

"The United States is the only country in the world where fossils like this are considered personal property," Cassandra Hatton, head of science and natural history at Sotheby's, told AFP before the auction.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

One of the Brin-backed measures would bar new taxes on personal property, including retirement accounts, intellectual property and financial assets, excluding real estate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026

A federal judge has found that the city of Los Angeles violated the constitutional rights of homeless people by seizing and destroying their personal property during cleanups.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026

At this time molecular work on DNA in England was, for all practical purposes, the personal property of Maurice Wilkins, a bachelor who worked in London at King’s College.*

From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson