resident

American  

[rez-i-duhnt] / ˈrɛz ɪ dənt /

noun

• residents
  plural

1. a person who resides in a place.

2. a physician who joins the medical staff of a hospital as a salaried employee for a specified period to gain advanced training usually in a particular field, being in full-time attendance at the hospital and often living on the premises.

3. a diplomatic representative, inferior in rank to an ambassador, residing at a foreign court.

4. (formerly) a representative of the British governor general at a court in India.

5. (formerly) the governor of a residency in the Dutch East Indies.

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adjective

1. residing; dwelling in a place.

2. living or staying at a place in discharge of duty.

3. (of qualities) existing; intrinsic.

4. (of birds) not migratory.

5. Computers.

   1. encoded and permanently available to a computer user, as a font in a printer's ROM or software on a CD-ROM.

   2. (of a computer program) currently active or standing by in computer memory.

resident British  

/ ˈrɛzɪdənt /

noun

1. a person who resides in a place

2. Former name: inmate. social welfare an occupant of a welfare agency home

3. (esp formerly) a representative of the British government in a British protectorate

4. (esp in the 17th century) a diplomatic representative ranking below an ambassador

5. (in India, formerly) a representative of the British governor general at the court of a native prince

6. a bird or other animal that does not migrate

7. a physician who lives in the hospital where he or she works while undergoing specialist training after completing his or her internship Compare house physician

8. a junior doctor, esp a house officer, who lives in the hospital in which he or she works

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adjective

1. living in a place; residing

2. living or staying at a place in order to discharge a duty, etc

3. (of qualities, characteristics, etc) existing or inherent (in)

4. (of birds and other animals) not in the habit of migrating

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• residentship
  noun
• pseudoresident
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• residents
  plural

Etymology

Origin of resident

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Middle French, from Latin resident- (stem of residēns ), present participle of residēre “to reside”; see reside, -ent

Explanation

A resident is someone who lives somewhere particular, or a doctor-in-training who takes care of the patients at a hospital under the supervision of other doctors. You are a resident of wherever you live — your house, town, planet. (Let's assume we're all residents of Earth.) It's where you were born or where you've lived for awhile. Doctors who have their medical licenses but need more training become residents of hospitals. Animals that don't migrate are residents, too. Although it's usually a noun, it can be an adjective, like in the horror movie no one wants to live in, "Resident Evil."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

resident residents

Instead, the West Village resident will be cheering from the sidelines in Manhattan—and she has tips for those traveling to the city to do the same.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Olugbala, the Oakland resident who wanted to get Google Gemini off her phone, said she wants to talk to real people using her voice, not bots.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

One Adigrat resident said that seeing Eritrean soldiers again was emotionally distressing: "The memories are still fresh. I was emotional myself. People are saddened to see them back again."

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

In the rural NSW town of Mudgee, resident Bev Smiles says three nearby coal mines are seeking to expand.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

When you consider the size of an individual termite, photographed standing alongside his nest, he ranks with the New Yorker and shows a better sense of organization than a resident of Los Angeles.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

The measure only applies to permanent Florida residents, and the exemption would only count for non-school taxes.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

San Francisco Bay Area residents, living in the beating heart of the artificial intelligence boom, are just as conflicted about the technology as the rest of the country.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

The provider said it hoped it can "continue to work constructively with residents at Coombe Lodge to resolve all the remaining issues going forward".

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Klitschko said residents with friends or relatives outside Kyiv should consider temporarily relocating -- repeating a suggestion that had triggered a backlash last year.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

They slept in the homes of local residents and they had a mess area with tables under a grove of trees.

From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein

Related Words

• citizen
• dweller
• inhabitant
• inmate
• local
• native
• resident
• tenant