INTESTACY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does intestacy mean? 

• INTESTACY (noun)
  The noun INTESTACY has 1 sense:

1. the situation of being or dying without a legally valid will

  Familiarity information: INTESTACY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INTESTACY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The situation of being or dying without a legally valid will

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

situation; state of affairs (the general state of things; the combination of circumstances at a given time)

 Context examples 

For by her predeceasing her daughter the latter would have come into possession of the property, and, even had she only survived her mother by five minutes, her property would, in case there were no will—and a will was a practical impossibility in such a case—have been treated at her decease as under intestacy.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)