Word.ws English Dictionary

heir apparent

heir apparent noun: someone who will definitely inherit if surviving the one whose property is to be inherited.

Noun

heir apparent (plural heirs apparent or heir apparents)

  1. (usually) Someone who will definitely inherit if surviving the one whose property is to be inherited.
    • […] for Mary, though perfectly resolved against ever attaching herself to a younger brother again, was long in finding among the dashing representatives, or idle heir apparents, who were at the command of her beauty, and her 20,000l. any one who could satisfy the better taste she had acquired at...1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter XVII, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 345
    • LeBron James, heir apparent to MJ’s throne, seems on paper like a dream trade—he stole plenty of laughs in Trainwreck a few summers ago.2021 July 14, A. A. Dowd, “Space Jam: A New Legacy is one big, witless commercial for Warner Bros. properties”, in The A.V. Club

heir apparent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu

heir apparent in Hindi

someone who will definitely inherit
उत्तराधिकारी uttarādhikārī

heir apparent in Tamil

உறுதிநிலை மரபுரிமையர், உறுதிநிலை மரபுரிமையாளர், மரபுரிமையுடைய வாரிசு

heir apparent in Urdu

ولیعہد

heir apparent in Telugu

someone who will definitely inherit
కుమారస్వామి kumārasvāmi
More languagesFewer languages
heir apparent in Arabic
وَلِيّ عَهْد waliyy ʕahd
heir apparent in Malay
pewaris takhta, waris ganti
heir apparent in Indonesian
pewaris takhta
heir apparent in Thai
ทายาทผู้มีสิทธิโดยตรง taa-yâat pôo mee sìt-tí doi dtrong

Antonyms of heir apparent

Forms of heir apparent

pluralheirs apparent
pluralheir apparents

Origin of heir apparent

From Middle English heier apparaunt, a calque translation of Middle French héritier apparent, hence the unusual order of adjective following noun.

Questions about heir apparent

What does heir apparent mean?
Heir apparent means someone who will definitely inherit if surviving the one whose property is to be inherited.
What is heir apparent in Hindi?
Heir apparent in Hindi is उत्तराधिकारी (uttarādhikārī). See Heir apparent meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is heir apparent?
Heir apparent is a noun.
What is the plural of heir apparent?
The plural of heir apparent is heirs apparent.

Words near heir apparent in the dictionary

  1. Heinzmans
  2. Heinzs
  3. heir
  4. heir apparencies
  5. heir apparency
  6. heir apparent
  7. heir at law
  8. heir by custom
  9. heir general
  10. heir presumptive
  11. heir-at-law

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: heir apparent (page history and authors); heir apparent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); heir apparent (Urdu 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-au-heir apparent.ogg.

Cite this entry: “heir apparent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/heir_apparent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.