ESTATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does estate mean? 

• ESTATE (noun)
  The noun ESTATE has 3 senses:

1. everything you own; all of your assets (whether real property or personal property) and liabilities

2. extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use

3. a major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country (especially in the United Kingdom) and formerly possessing distinct political rights

  Familiarity information: ESTATE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ESTATE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Everything you own; all of your assets (whether real property or personal property) and liabilities

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("estate" is a kind of...):

belongings; holding; property (something owned; any tangible or intangible possession that is owned by someone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "estate"):

gross estate (the total valuation of the estate's assets at the time of the person's death)

net estate (the estate remaining after debts and funeral expenses and administrative expenses have been deducted from the gross estate; the estate then left to be distributed (and subject to federal and state inheritance taxes))

estate for life; life estate ((law) an estate whose duration is limited to the life of the person holding it)

jointure; legal jointure ((law) an estate secured to a prospective wife as a marriage settlement in lieu of a dower)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

acres; demesne; estate; land; landed estate

Context example:

the family owned a large estate on Long Island

Hypernyms ("estate" is a kind of...):

immovable; real estate; real property; realty (property consisting of houses and land)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "estate"):

barony (the estate of a baron)

entail (land received by fee tail)

plantation (an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas))

hacienda (a large estate in Spanish-speaking countries)

seigneury; seigniory; signory (the estate of a seigneur)

manor (the landed estate of a lord (including the house on it))

Crown land (land that belongs to the Crown)

countryseat (an estate in the country)

feoff; fief (a piece of land held under the feudal system)

homestead (land acquired from the United States public lands by filing a record and living on and cultivating it under the homestead law)

smallholding (a piece of land under 50 acres that is sold or let to someone for cultivation)

leasehold (land or property held under a lease)

glebe (plot of land belonging to an English parish church or an ecclesiastical office)

freehold (an estate held in fee simple or for life)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A major social class or order of persons regarded collectively as part of the body politic of the country (especially in the United Kingdom) and formerly possessing distinct political rights

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

estate; estate of the realm; the three estates

Hypernyms ("estate" is a kind of...):

class; social class; socio-economic class; stratum (people having the same social, economic, or educational status)

Domain region:

Britain; Great Britain; U.K.; UK; United Kingdom; United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; 'Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom)

France; French Republic (a republic in western Europe; the largest country wholly in Europe)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "estate"):

Lords Temporal; second estate (the nobility in France and the peerage in Britain)

Commons; third estate (the common people)

fourth estate (the press, including journalists, newspaper writers, photographers)

first estate; Lords Spiritual (the clergy in France and the heads of the church in Britain)

Holonyms ("estate" is a part of...):

body politic; commonwealth; country; land; nation; res publica; state (a politically organized body of people under a single government)

 Context examples 

His father had purchased the estate for the sake of the game covers.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A low hedge parted the two estates.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I have come legally to man's estate.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His chance for the Kellynch estate was something, but all the honour of the family he held as cheap as dirt.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Four thousand a year is a pretty estate, and he seems a very genteel, steady young man, so I hope Miss Julia will be very happy.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

An estate of at least equal value, moreover, was assured as his future inheritance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

You come to me not alone as agent of my friend Peter Hawkins, of Exeter, to tell me all about my new estate in London.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It’s also possible you will tackle a goal with your partner that seems to involve real estate, either to live in as your residence or as an investment or vacation home.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

He said, “if I would go with him to his country-house, about twenty miles distant, where his estate lay, there would be more leisure for this kind of conversation.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

When I was a lad I worked out every tree and building in the estate.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)