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inhabit

verb

Simple meaning

To live or reside in.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnhabuht

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnˈhæbət

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To live or reside in.

  2. Be an inhabitant of or reside in

  3. transitive

    To be present in.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To live or reside in.

Used this way, inhabit is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

now inhabitspecies inhabit

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • dwell

    To live; to reside.

  • live

    To live as; to live being.

  • occupy

    To live or reside in.

  • shack

    To live (in or with).

  • populate

    Be an inhabitant of or reside in.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • inhabitedadjectiveInflected form

    Having inhabitants.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • inhabitantnounRelated term

    A person who inhabits a particular place.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to live or reside in

people

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.