DictionaryAI

resident

USREZ-i-duhnt/ˈɹɛzɪd(ə)nt/

Pluralresidents

9 meanings of resident

Practice

  1. 1
    lives in areanouncountable
    A person, animal, or plant that lives at a particular location or in a given area.

    Each resident of the valley relies on the same river for water.

    Long-term residents of the marsh include herons, frogs, and dragonflies.

    UsageUsually a resident of a place: residents of the valley, local residents.

    Similarinhabitant, occupant, dweller, denizen, local

    Oppositevisitor, outsider

    Note

    The noun is not limited to people. Harper's in 1868 calls the tiger a resident of the Lower Amoor, and a 1953 pamphlet makes a tree a resident of the foothills. In the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897), the residents of Asquith, a summer resort, are blamed for its sandy roads.

  2. 2
    adjective
    Living in a particular place, or based and regularly present there, for a continuing period.

    The resident squire managed the estate his family had held for centuries.

    Few of the original resident households remain in the old village.

    UsageBefore a noun (a resident cat), or after one with in, sometimes on or at: a family resident in the city.

    Note

    Its older emphasis is on staying put. A landowner resident on his own estate actually lived there. Before a noun, as in resident squire, it marks someone who lives on the spot rather than someone merely connected with it.

  3. 3
    trainee doctornouncountable
    A physician undergoing specialized training, typically in a hospital after completing medical school.

    The resident presented the case to the attending physician during morning rounds.

    Surgical residents rotate through several departments during their years of training.

    UsageThe specialty follows with in and the hospital with at: a resident in surgery at a city hospital.

    Note

    Hospital language for a doctor still in training. The training comes after the medical degree and runs for several supervised years before the doctor practices independently. Residency names the stage, and resident names the person in it.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English resident, via Anglo-Norman, from Latin residēns, the present participle of resideō ("to remain behind, reside, dwell"), built from re- ("back") and sedeō ("I sit"). The espionage sense was borrowed from Russian резиде́нт (rezidént), and the physician sense arose because in the 19th century such doctors resided in the hospital dormitories.

Checked 6 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

  • Resident came through Middle English and Anglo-Norman from Latin residēns. en.wiktionary.org
  • Latin residēns is the present participle of resideō. en.wiktionary.org
  • Resideō means to remain behind, reside or dwell. en.wiktionary.org
  • Resideō combines re-, meaning back, and sedeō, meaning sit. en.wiktionary.org
  • Sedeō is the first-person singular present form meaning I sit. en.wiktionary.org
  • The espionage meaning is borrowed semantically from Russian резиде́нт. en.wiktionary.org
  • The medical name reflects physicians living in hospital dormitories during the nineteenth century. en.wikipedia.org