Heiress

//ɛəˈɹɛs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A woman who has a right of inheritance or who stands to inherit.
""Do you know, Julia, that Charles has taken some wild-goose fancy into his head about marrying?" "Why, what heiress have you picked up?" asked his sister. "I am sure that I am very glad of it, though I cannot form a guess who it is. I never knew a season so unprofitable in that respect as the present.""
2
a female heir wordnet
3
A woman who has received an inheritance.

Synonyms

apparent heir beneficiary heir child chip off the old block coparcener daughter

Example

"She's the heiress to a great fortune."

Etymology

From heir + -ess.

Related phrases

heiress apparent heiress presumptive heir apparent

More for "heiress"

Synonyms Sentences Pronunciation Translate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonyms See usage examples Check pronunciation Browse writing guides

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