Heir

//ɛɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Someone who inherits, or is designated to inherit, the property of another.

    "My brother is the heir to our childhood house and yet has no interest in it."

  2. 2
    a person who is entitled by law or by the terms of a will to inherit the estate of another wordnet
  3. 3
    One who inherits, or has been designated to inherit, a hereditary title or office.

    "As the heir to the British throne, the Prince of Wales is a very public figure."

  4. 4
    a person who inherits some title or office wordnet
  5. 5
    A successor in a role, representing continuity with the predecessor.

    "And I his heir in misery alone."

Verb
  1. 1
    To inherit. ambitransitive

    "[…] Leonard Houtz & John Myer to be executors to this my last will & testament & lastly my children shall heir equally, one as much as the other."

Synonyms

All synonyms
inheritorinheritorsuccessorsuccessoraftercomeraftermath

Example

More examples

"The rich merchant adopted the boy and made him his heir."

Etymology

From Middle English heir, from Anglo-Norman eir, heir, from Latin hērēs.

Related phrases

forced heirheir apparencyheir apparentheir at lawheir by customheir generalheir of the bodyheir of the lineheir portionerheir presumptiveheir-at-lawheir-loom

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.