inhabitant

B1 Topic:People & Society

US /ɪnˈhæb.ɪ.tənt/ See IPA manual

Freq #46987

Meanings

1

noun
A person or animal that lives in a particular place.

The town has around ten thousand inhabitants.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person or animal that... dweller resident denizen

Word family

Forms inhabitants

Derived forms coinhabitantinhabitancy noninhabitant

Related forms habit habitationhabituatedinhabit

Etymology

From Middle English inhabitantes (n. plural) and inhabitaunt (adj.), from Old French inhabitant, from Latin inhabitāns, present participle of inhabitō (“to inhabit”), from in- (“in”) + habitō (“to dwell”) (frequentative of habeō (“to hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to seize, take, hold, have”). By surface analysis, inhabit + -ant.

inhabitantes Middle English inhabitant Old French inhabitāns Latin *ghabh- Proto-Indo-European

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# inhabitant

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ɪnˈhæb.ɪ.tənt/
**Frequency rank:** 46987

## Meanings
1. A person or animal that lives in a particular place.

## Examples
- The town has around ten thousand inhabitants.

## Synonyms
- denizen
- dweller
- resident

## Derived Forms
- coinhabitant
- inhabitancy
- noninhabitant

## Related Forms
- habit
- habitation
- habituated
- inhabit

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: inhabitantes
- Root: inhabitant
- Root: inhabitāns
- Root: *ghabh-

## Etymology
From Middle English inhabitantes (n. plural) and inhabitaunt (adj.), from Old French inhabitant, from Latin inhabitāns, present participle of inhabitō (“to inhabit”), from in- (“in”) + habitō (“to dwell”) (frequentative of habeō (“to hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to seize, take, hold, have”). By surface analysis, inhabit + -ant.

## AI Etymology
Inhabitant comes from Middle English inhabitantes (n. plural) and inhabitaunt (adj.), from Old French inhabitant, from Latin inhabitāns, present participle of inhabitō (“to inhabit”), from in- (“in”) + habitō (“to dwell”) (frequentative of habeō (“to hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghabh- (“to seize, take, hold, have”). By surface analysis, inhabit + -ant. The analysis is mainly morphological: the modern nominal form is built from the named base and affix.

## Topics
- People & Society

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