denizen
Syllables: den·i·zenUK/ˈdɛn.ɪ.zən//ˈdɛn ə zən/
denizen noun: an inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in a certain place.
Noun
denizen (plural denizens)
- An inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in a certain place.
- The giant squid is one of many denizens of the deep.
- […] adversity bends the heart as fire bends the stubborn steel, and those who are no longer their own governors, and the denizens of their own free independent state, must crouch before strangers.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, “[HTTP://WWW.GUTENBERG.ORG/FILES/82/82-H/82-H.HTM CHAPTER 39]”, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh...
- Synonyms:
- dweller, inhabitant, native, resident
- One who frequents a place.
- The denizens of that pub are of the roughest sort.
- He was well known to the sallow denizens of the lane; for such of them as were on the look-out to buy or sell, nodded, familiarly, as he passed along.1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “chapter 26”, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC
- A person with rights between those of naturalized citizen and resident alien (roughly permanent resident), obtained through letters patent.
- Then by commaundement wer all Fre[n]chemen and Scottes imprisoned and the goodes seazed, and all suche as were denizens were commaunded to shewe their letters patentes […]1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, London, The xiiii yere
- A denizen is a kind of middle state, between an alien and a natural-born subject, and partakes of both.1765, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 1, Chapter X, p. 374
- An animal or plant from a particular range or habitat.
- The bald eagle is a denizen of the northern part of the state.
- A foreign word that has become naturalised in another language in terms of use, but not in terms of form.
Verb
denizen (third-person singular simple present denizens, present participle denizening, simple past and past participle denizened)
- To grant rights of citizenship to; to naturalize.
- He was denizened to Ireland after fleeing his home country.
- [The Horse-Chessnut] was first brought from Constantinople to Vienna, thence into Italy, and so France; but to Ʋs from the Levant more immediately, and flourishes so well, and grows so goodly a Tree in compe[te]nt time, that by this alone, we might have ample encouragement to Denizen other...1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “. Chapter CHAPTER 7, “OF THE CHESNUT,”.”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn...
- To provide with denizens; to populate with adopted or naturalized occupants.
- There were a few islets in the sand […] . These were at once denizened by the Calotropis, Argemone, Tamarix, Gnaphalium luteoalbum and two other species […] .1849, Joseph Dalton Hooker, “Extracts from the Private Letters of Dr. J. D. Hooker, written during a Botanical Mission to India” in William Jackson Hooker (editor), Hooker’s Journal of Botany and Kew...
denizen meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
denizen in Tamil
- குடியுரிமையர், குடியுரிமை பெற்றவர்
denizen in Urdu
- باشندہ, باسی, ساکن
denizen in Bengali
- বাসিন্দা, নিবাসী, প্রাণী, উদ্ভিদ
denizen in Malayalam
- resident, inhabitant, townsman
- പൗരനായിത്തീർന്ന പരദേശി, വാസി, നിവാസി, വസിക്കുന്നവൻ, പൗരനായിത്തീർന്നവൻ, വളരെ നാൾ ഒരുസ്ഥലത്തു താമസിക്കുന്നവൻ
More languagesFewer languages
- denizen in Kannada
- ನಿವಾಸಿ
- denizen in Pashto
- همسایه hëmsayë
- denizen in Thai
- ผู้อยู่อาศัย, ขาประจำ
Examples of denizen in a sentence
- Though born in Iceland, he became a denizen of Britain after leaving Oxford.
- The cries of the gorilla proclaimed that it was in mortal combat with some other denizen of the fierce wood.1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as...
- And on first viewing, this week’s jarring retro-Métro-racism seems like a good reason to condemn the denizens of Stamford Bridge.2015 February 20, Russell Brand, “Let’s kick cold profiteering out of football, along with racism”, in The Guardian (London):
Synonyms of denizen
Forms of denizen
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | denizens |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | denizens |
| present participle | denizening |
| past participle | denizened |
| past | denizened |
Origin of denizen
From Middle English denisein, from Old French denzein, from deinz (“within”) + -ein, from Late Latin dē intus (“from within”), whence French dans.
Words formed from denizen
Words that rhyme with denizen
Questions about denizen
- What does denizen mean?
- Denizen means an inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in a certain place.
- What is denizen in Tamil?
- Denizen in Tamil is குடியுரிமையர், குடியுரிமை பெற்றவர். See Denizen meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use denizen in a sentence?
- Though born in Iceland, he became a denizen of Britain after leaving Oxford.
- What part of speech is denizen?
- Denizen can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce denizen?
- Denizen is pronounced /ˈdɛn.ɪ.zən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of denizen?
- The plural of denizen is denizens.
Words near denizen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: denizen (page history and authors); denizen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); denizen (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Denizen (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); denizen (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); denizen (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-denizen.ogg, en-au-denizen.ogg.
Cite this entry: “denizen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/denizen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.