Property definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (47)

American Heritage Dictionary (9)

noun Something owned; a possession.
noun A piece of real estate: has a swimming pool on the property.
noun Something tangible or intangible to which its owner has legal title: properties such as copyrights and trademarks.

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Century Dictionary (30)

Any character always present in an individual or a class; an essential attribute; a peculiar quality; loosely, any quality or characteristic. It is the propertie of a wyse buylder to vse such tooles as the woorke requireth. R. Eden (First Books on America, ed. Arber, p. 57). Delectable and pleasant conversation, whose property is to move a kindly delight. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 3. But Thou art the same Lord, Whose property is always to have mercy. Book of Common Prayer, Communion Office, Prayer of Humble Access. Property is correctly a synonym for peculiar quality; but it is frequently used as co-extensive with quality in general. Sir W. Hamilton. Strictly speaking, we ought to confine the term property to Bodies, not to Matter; for an abstraction can have no properties; and it is the bodies which severally manifest the qualities. G. H. Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, II. iv. § 42. Soft iron loses almost all magnetic properties at a red heat. Atkinson, tr. of Mascart and Joubert, I. 384.
In logic, a character which belongs to the whole of a species, and to nothing else, but not to the essence or definition. Propretie is a naturall promenesse and maner of dooyng whiche agreeth to one kinde and to the same onely and that evermore. Wilson, Rule of Reason (1551). What is propertie? It is a natural inclination or property, incident to one special kind; which is to be understood foure manner of waies. First, it is called proprium, which is proper to one onely kind, as to be a poet or musician is proper to man, but not to every man: secondly, it is called proper that belongeth to all the kind, but not to that kind alone: thirdly, it is said to be proper when it belongeth to one onely kind and to all that kind, but yet not alwayes, as to be bare-headed or bald is proper to man in old age, but yet not alwaies: fourthly, it is said to be proper, or rather most proper, which is incident to one kind alone, to all that kind, and alwaies, as to have a natural aptnesse to laugh or to speake is proper to man onely, to every man, and alwaies, and therefore this kind of property is said to be convertible with the kind whereunto it belongeth, as whatsoever hath naturally power to speake or laugh the same is man, and whatsoever is man the same hath power to speake or laugh. Blundeville, Arte of Logicke, i. 4.
The right to the use or enjoyment or the beneficial right of disposal of anything that can be the subject of ownership; ownership; estate; especially, ownership of tangible things. In the broader sense, a right of action is property; so is a mere right to use or possess, if it be a right as against the general owner, but is usually termed special property, to distinguish it from the right of the general owner, which is termed the general property. The entire property is the exclusive right of possessing; enjoying, and disposing of a thing. See bailment, and lien, 1. Ne truste no wight to finden in Fortune Ay properte; hir giftes ben comune. Chaucer, Troilus, iv. 392. Jack has an unresisting good nature, which makes him incapable of having a property in any thing. Steele, Spectator, No. 82. The idea of property being a right to any thing. Locke, Human Understanding, IV. iii. 18. Property … denotes in every state of society the largest powers of exclusive use or exclusive control over things (and sometimes, unfortunately, over persons) which the law accords, or which custom, in that state of society, recognizes. J. S. Mill, Socialism, p. 129.

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Examples (50)

NET class property, which means the underlying value of the property is a field. — Pixel2Life.com: Latest 15 Tutorials
Sealed bids for the property will be accepted this month. — Paul & Matt's Sports Attack
The asking price for the property is around $37 million, said Rusty Pulliam, part of the Biltmore Eight LLC ownership group. — CITIZEN-TIMES.com - News
You The person," interposed "Cobbler" Horn, "to whom I wish to leave my property is my little daughter, Marian, who wandered away twelve years ago, and has never been heard of since. — The Golden Shoemaker or 'Cobbler' Horn
A portion of his property was afterwards restored to him. — Christmas: Its Origin and Associations Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries

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value · quality · estate · product · function · service · class · law

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old French propriete, from Latin proprietās, ownership (translation of Greek idiotēs), from proprius, one's own; see per¹ in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Middle English propertee, properte, proprete, propirte, propurte, from Old French properte, propriety, fitness, property, from Latin proprieta(t-)s, a peculiarity, peculiar nature or quality, right or fact of possession, property, from proprius, special, particular, one's own: see proper. Cf. propriety, a doublet of property.
from property, n.

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