resident

American  

[rez-i-duhnt] / ˈrɛz ɪ dənt /

noun

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

• pseudoresident
  adjective
• residentship
  noun

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

Sue Kohl, a longtime Palisades resident whose kids grew up with Pratt, said the teenage years should be viewed with some perspective.

From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026

"We treated this epidemic like a joke, but today we can see that the situation is becoming more and more serious," resident Gims Maniwa said.

From Barron's • May 20, 2026

The Hebron, Kentucky resident told Slate he had voted for Ed Gallrein because he “wanted to try something different.”

From Slate • May 20, 2026

Using the CPI measure, the government has repeatedly said resident doctors' current pay is fair.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026

It said what Jaden was talking about before, how current resident sentences would all go full term from now on, and in some cases they could even be extended for consistent misbehavior.

From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña

Related Words

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