property

B1 Topic:People & Society

Also spelled propaty

US /ˈpɹɑpɚti/ UK /ˈpɹɒpəti/ See IPA manual

Freq #1701

Meanings

1

noun
A building or piece of land that someone owns.

There is a large house on the property.
2

noun
A thing or things that someone owns.

Leave those books alone — they are my property!
3

noun
A quality or feature that something has.

Matter can have many properties, such as colour and mass.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a building or piece of land... land real estate

2 noun · a thing or things that... possessions

3 noun · a quality or feature that... attribute characteristic

More aught belongingsowndompossession propriety

Word family

Forms propertiedproperties

Derived forms antipropertybiopropertydispropertyhyperpropertymetapropertynonpropertyproppropertarianpropertiedpropertizationproperty-theoreticpropertyless

Related forms acquisition possess possessor proper proprietary proprietor

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

tangible property
property that has a physical form and can be touched

Adjective + noun

Simplified etymology

Property comes from Latin proprietas “ownership,” an abstract noun formed from proprius “one’s own, special, particular.” The same Latin family produced proper, proprietary, proprietor, propriety, and appropriate.

Etymology

From Middle English propertee, properte, propirte, proprete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French propreté, proprieté (“propriety, fitness, property”), from Latin proprietās (“a peculiarity, one's peculiar nature or quality, right or fact of possession, property”), from proprius (“special, particular, one's own”). Equivalent to proper + -ty. Doublet of propriety.

propertee Middle English propreté Old French proprietās Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society

External links

# property

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈpɹɑpɚti/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈpɹɒpəti/
**Frequency rank:** 1701

## Meanings
1. A building or piece of land that someone owns.
2. A thing or things that someone owns.
3. A quality or feature that something has.

## Examples
- There is a large house on the property.
- Leave those books alone — they are my property!
- Matter can have many properties, such as colour and mass.

## Synonyms
- aught
- belongings
- characteristic
- owndom
- possession
- propriety

## Derived Forms
- antiproperty
- bioproperty
- disproperty
- hyperproperty
- metaproperty
- nonproperty
- prop
- propertarian
- propertied
- propertization
- property-theoretic
- propertyless

## Related Forms
- acquisition
- possess
- possessor
- proper
- proprietary
- proprietor

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: propertee
- Root: propreté
- Root: proprietās

## Etymology
From Middle English propertee, properte, propirte, proprete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French propreté, proprieté (“propriety, fitness, property”), from Latin proprietās (“a peculiarity, one's peculiar nature or quality, right or fact of possession, property”), from proprius (“special, particular, one's own”). Equivalent to proper + -ty. Doublet of propriety.

## AI Etymology
Property comes from Middle English propertee, properte, propirte, proprete, borrowed from Anglo-Norman and Old French propreté, proprieté (“propriety, fitness, property”), from Latin proprietās (“a peculiarity, one's peculiar nature or quality, right or fact of possession, property”), from proprius (“special, particular, one's own”). Equivalent to proper + -ty. Doublet of propriety. In present-day English it covers a building or piece of land that someone owns, a thing or things that someone owns, and a quality or feature that something has. The wider family includes derived forms such as antiproperty, bioproperty, disproperty, hyperproperty, metaproperty and related forms such as acquisition, possess, possessor, proper.

## Topics
- People & Society

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