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

Another call takes Charlotte and Connor to a sheltered housing development and an elderly resident who is feeling faint.

From BBC • Jul. 10, 2026

"In several hundred years, this is the first time the water has reached the second floor... Never before in history," said another resident, Bi Yunchun.

From Barron's • Jul. 9, 2026

The centers’ likely usage for AI concerns her as an artist, while the companies’ erasure of cultural landmarks in the construction process upsets her as a longtime resident.

From Salon • Jul. 9, 2026

Tetiana Pyrohova, a yearslong resident, and her family decided to spend nights temporarily at her family’s home outside Kyiv after the May airstrikes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 8, 2026

And thus becoming a permanent resident marked the beginning of our next chapter of waiting.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

Related Words

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