denizen
denizen Lexical Profile
denizen Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A person, animal, or plant that lives in or is native to a particular place or habitat.
"Polar bears and Arctic foxes are well-adapted denizens of the frozen northern tundra."
A person who regularly frequents a particular establishment, environment, or sphere of activity.
"By midnight, the jazz club was filled with local musicians and other denizens of the city's nightlife."
A foreigner admitted to residence and granted certain civic rights in a country; in British legal history, an alien granted royal letters patent conferring the privileges of a subject.
"Under early modern English law, a denizen could purchase and hold land even without full parliamentary naturalization."
• verb
To admit a foreigner, species, or loanword to the rights and status of a native resident; to naturalize.
"Over the centuries, English has denizened thousands of Latin and French words into everyday speech."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-Norman denzein ('one from within'), derived from Old French deinz ('within, inside') and ultimately from Late Latin deintus ('from within'). In English law, it originally contrasted a native insider or royal-chartered resident with a foreign outsider.