Heir-at-law

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate.

    "'And to whom,' said Lady Knollys, with an effort, 'will the property belong, in case—in case my little cousin here should die before she comes of age?' 'Eh? Well—wouldn't it go to the heir-at-law and next of kin?' said Doctor Bryerly, turning to Abel Grimston. 'Ay—to be sure,' said the attorney, thoughtfully. 'And who is that?' pursued my cousin. 'Well, her uncle, Mr. Silas Ruthyn. He's both heir-at-law and next of kin,' pursued Abel Grimston."

  2. 2
    the person legally entitled to inherit the property of someone who dies intestate wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
heir generallegal heirstatutory heir

Example

More examples

"'And to whom,' said Lady Knollys, with an effort, 'will the property belong, in case—in case my little cousin here should die before she comes of age?' 'Eh? Well—wouldn't it go to the heir-at-law and next of kin?' said Doctor Bryerly, turning to Abel Grimston. 'Ay—to be sure,' said the attorney, thoughtfully. 'And who is that?' pursued my cousin. 'Well, her uncle, Mr. Silas Ruthyn. He's both heir-at-law and next of kin,' pursued Abel Grimston."

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