noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Someone who inherits something; an heir.
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
   A class, etc. that derives from another code element through inheritance.

Synonyms

All synonyms

heirapparent heirbackup manbeneficiary heirbreedbrood

Example

More examples

"Being an only child, he was the sole inheritor."

Etymology

From Middle English enheriter, enheritour. Displaced Old English ierfenuma. By surface analysis, inherit + -or.

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