ENGLISH
REFERENCE

resident

n. · adj.
US //ˈɹɛzɪdənt// UK //ɹˈɛzɪdənt// res·i·dent
  1. 1 a person living in a place (n.)
    B1 Intermediate

    someone who lives in a particular house, apartment, or area.

    a person who inhabits a specific dwelling or locality on a permanent or long-term basis.

    Example

    The local residents are unhappy about the new noisy construction project.

    Example

    The city council invited residents of the affected neighbourhood to a public forum to discuss the proposed zoning changes.

  2. 2 a doctor in training (n.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate Medicine

    a doctor who has finished medical school and is getting advanced training in a hospital.

    a physician who has completed medical school and is undergoing specialised postgraduate training in a clinical setting.

    Example

    The resident checked on the patient every two hours during the night.

    Example

    After completing her internship, she secured a position as a surgical resident at one of the country's leading teaching hospitals.

    • trainee doctor
Show 2 more sensesShow fewer
  1. 3 living or based in a place (adj.)
    B2 Upper Intermediate

    living or working in a specific place for a long time.

    dwelling or staying in a place for a continued period; often used to describe staff who live where they work.

    Example

    The hotel has a resident pianist who plays in the lobby every evening.

    Example

    The university's resident experts were called upon to provide testimony during the environmental impact hearing.

  2. 4 stored in memory (adj.)
    C1 Advanced Technical Computing

    describes a computer program that stays in the computer's active memory (RAM) so it is always ready.

    referring to software or data that remains permanently or semi-permanently in a computer's random-access memory.

    Example

    The antivirus software is memory-resident to protect the system in real time.

    Example

    The operating system manages resident programs to ensure that critical background tasks do not exhaust the available physical memory.

Origin

From Middle English resident, from Anglo-Norman resident, from Latin residēns, present participle of resideō (“to remain behind, reside, dwell”), equivalent to reside + -ent, from re- (“back”) + sedeō (“to sit”). Doublet of resiant and rezident. The espionage sense is a semantic loan from Russian резиде́нт (rezidént). (physician): So called because in the 19th century they resided in the hospital dormitories.

Word family

© 2026 English Reference