inhabit

verb in·hab·it \ in-ˈha-bət \

Updated on: 13 Apr 2018

Definition of inhabit

transitive verb

1 : to occupy as a place of settled residence or habitat : live in

inhabit a small house

2 : to be present in or occupy in any manner or form

the human beings who inhabit this tale
—Al Newman

intransitive verb

archaic : to have residence in a place : dwell

—

inhabitable

play \in-ˈha-bə-tə-bəl\ adjective

—

inhabiter

noun

See inhabit defined for English-language learners

See inhabit defined for kids

Examples of inhabit in a Sentence

Several hundred species of birds inhabit the island.
This part of the country is inhabited by native tribes.
There is a romantic quality that inhabits all her paintings.
The novel is inhabited by a cast of eccentric characters.

Recent Examples of inhabit from the Web

Steven Spielberg's empty sci-fi epic Ready Player One takes place in a 2045 so dystopian that people spend all their time under headsets, inhabiting a virtual reality known as OASIS.

— j.r. jones, Chicago Reader, "With Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg finds his avatar," 29 Mar. 2018
Pokemon Go, the breakout AR game of 2016, only offered a rudimentary way for multiple users to inhabit the same digital space.

— sandra upson, WIRED, "This Startup Makes Augmented Reality Social—and Ubiquitous," 28 Mar. 2018
There are more than a dozen figures milling around the mansion, and each of them gets a distinctive musical world to inhabit; the Met’s casting, absolutely first-rate across the board, only underlines the point.

— joshua kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, "‘The Exterminating Angel’ dazzles in PBS broadcast," 27 Mar. 2018
Humans, like wolves and whales, havean apparently innate need to inhabit packs, pods and political groupings.

— andrew malcolm, Anchorage Daily News, "Both political parties are more dysfunctional than Trump White House," 21 Mar. 2018
Vikander does extremely well to inhabit Croft with imagination and distinctiveness.

— josephine livingstone, The New Republic, "There’s Something Different About the New Lara Croft," 20 Mar. 2018
His radical reset of Dior Homme (the Monsieur was dropped) in 2000 prompted Karl Lagerfeld (and many others) to endure rigorous diets just for the pleasure of inhabiting Slimane’s compelling vision of man.

— luke leitch, Vogue, "Where Will Kim Jones Take Dior Homme?," 19 Mar. 2018
The truth is not in our world and those characters inhabiting that world have a same kind of energy the Muppets do.

— jared cowan, Los Angeles Magazine, "What Frank Oz Learned From Jim Henson: Just Shut the F*ck Up," 15 Mar. 2018
But Trump’s communications team is largely female, perhaps an outgrowth of his reality-television-producing preference for stereotypical archetypes to inhabit specific roles.

— david nakamura, Washington Post, "‘I don’t envy them’: Hope Hicks and other White House women struggle to defend Trump in the #MeToo era," 2 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'inhabit.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of inhabit

Middle English enhabiten, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French inhabiter, enhabiter, from Latin inhabitare, from in- + habitare to dwell, frequentative of habēre to have — more at give

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First Known Use: 14th century

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INHABIT Defined for English Language Learners

inhabit

verb

Definition of inhabit for English Language Learners

: to live in (a place) : to have a home in (a place)
: to be present in (something)

INHABIT Defined for Kids

inhabit

verb in·hab·it \ in-ˈha-bət \

Definition of inhabit for Students

inhabited; inhabiting

: to live or dwell in

Learn More about inhabit

See words that rhyme with inhabit Spanish Central: Translation of inhabit Nglish: Translation of inhabit for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of inhabit for Arabic speakers

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inhabit

Definition of inhabit

inhabitable

inhabiter

Examples of inhabit in a Sentence

Recent Examples of inhabit from the Web

Origin and Etymology of inhabit

INHABIT Defined for English Language Learners

inhabit

Definition of inhabit for English Language Learners

INHABIT Defined for Kids

inhabit

Definition of inhabit for Students

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inhabitable

inhabiter

Examples of inhabit in a Sentence

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Origin and Etymology of inhabit

INHABIT Defined for English Language Learners

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Definition of inhabit for English Language Learners

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Definition of inhabit for Students

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