heiress

English

Etymology

From heir +‎ -ess.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛəˈɹɛs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

heiress (plural heiresses)

1. A woman who has a right of inheritance or who stands to inherit.
   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 120:

     "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 woman who has received an inheritance.

Derived terms

• heiress apparent
• heiress presumptive

 

Translations

a woman who stands to inherit

• Arabic: وَارِثَة f (wāriṯa)
• Belarusian: насле́дніца f (nasljédnica)
• Bulgarian: насле́дничка f (naslédnička)
• Czech: dědička (cs) f
• Danish: arving (da) c
• Estonian: pärijanna, pärija (any gender)
• Finnish: perijätär (fi)
• French: héritière (fr) f, successeuse (fr) f, successrice (fr) f
• Georgian: მემკვიდრე (memḳvidre)
• German: Erbin (de) f
• Gothic: 𐌰𐍂𐌱𐌾𐍉 f (arbjō)
• Irish: banoidhre m
• Italian: ereditiera (it) f
• Japanese: 世継ぎ (ja) (よつぎ, yotsugi)
• Latin: hēres (la) f
• Latvian: mantiniece f
• Lithuanian: paveldėtoja f
• Macedonian: наследничка f (naslednička)
• Polish: dziedzicka f, spadkobierczyni (pl) f, sukcesorka f
• Portuguese: herdeira f
• Romanian: moștenitoare (ro) f
• Russian: насле́дница (ru) f (naslédnica), прее́мница (ru) f (prejémnica)
• Scottish Gaelic: ban-oighre f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: на́следница f, на́сљедница f

  Roman: následnica f, násljednica (sh) f

• Slovak: dedička f
• Slovene: dedinja f, naslednica f
• Spanish: heredera (es) f
• Swedish: arvinge (sv) c, arvtagerska (sv) c
• Ukrainian: наслі́дниця f (naslídnycja), спадкоє́миця f (spadkojémycja)
• Welsh: aeres f

Anagrams

• Heisers, reishes