Inhabitants

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ɪnˈhæbɪtənts/

Definitions

1. Individuals or creatures that live permanently in a specific geographic region
2. Members of a community or population residing within a defined area
3. Persons or creatures who make their home in a particular location

Etymology: "Inhabitants" is the plural of "inhabitant," which entered English in Middle English from Old French, and before that from Latin "inhabitāns," the present participle of "inhabitō," meaning "to dwell in." The Latin verb is built from "in-" ("in") and "habitō" ("to dwell"), a frequentative form of "habeō" ("to hold"). So at its root, a person who inhabits a place is, quite literally, someone who keeps hold of it. The verb "habitō" belongs to a family of Latin words where dwelling and holding overlap. Repeated, frequentative verbs like it expressed habitual or repeated action, so "habitō" carried the sense of repeatedly holding or staying in one place, which is how a dwelling came to be a home. English later attached the suffix "-ant" to "inhabit," producing "inhabitant" in the same pattern as other agent nouns.

Synonyms: residents, dwellers, occupants, citizens, natives

Antonyms: visitors, outsiders, transients