Word.ws English Dictionary

gavelkind

/ˈɡævəlˌkaɪnd/

gavelkind noun: a system of inheritance associated with the county of Kent in England whereby, at the death of a tenant, intestate estate is divided equally among all his sons; also, a similar system employed in Ireland.

Noun

gavelkind (countable and uncountable, plural gavelkinds)

  1. (historical) a system of inheritance associated with the county of Kent in England whereby, at the death of a tenant, intestate estate is divided equally among all his sons; also, a similar system employed in Ireland

Forms of gavelkind

pluralgavelkinds

Origin of gavelkind

Inherited from Middle English gavelkynde; by surface analysis, gavel (“rent”) + kind (“lineage”).

Questions about gavelkind

What does gavelkind mean?
Gavelkind means a system of inheritance associated with the county of Kent in England whereby, at the death of a tenant, intestate estate is divided equally among all his sons; also, a similar system employed in Ireland.
What part of speech is gavelkind?
Gavelkind is a noun.
How do you pronounce gavelkind?
Gavelkind is pronounced /ˈɡævəlˌkaɪnd/.
What is the plural of gavelkind?
The plural of gavelkind is gavelkinds.

Words near gavelkind in the dictionary

  1. gavelinellid
  2. gavelinellids
  3. gaveling
  4. gaveling out
  5. gaveling to order
  6. gavelkind
  7. gavelkinder
  8. gavelkinders
  9. gavelkinds
  10. gavelled
  11. gavelled out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gavelkind (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.

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