Residential

How to spell residential

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce residential

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does residential mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to or designed for places where people live, rather than for business or industry.

Residential in a sentence

• The new flats were built in a quiet residential area away from the shops.

• The council rezoned the old factory site for residential use.

Where does residential come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb residere, meaning 'to remain' or 'to settle in a place', formed from re- 'back' and sedere 'to sit'. The idea is literally of sitting back or staying put, which gave Latin residentia, the act of dwelling somewhere. English took 'reside' and 'resident' from this stem during the late medieval period through Old French, and the adjective 'residential' followed later, becoming common in the nineteenth century to describe places where people live rather than work or trade. The same sedere root sits quietly inside many English words, including 'sediment' (what settles to the bottom) and 'sedentary' (given to sitting). The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: writers often want a soft 's' sound but must keep the 'sid' from sedere, and the ending is -ential, not -encial.

How the word is built

• re- (back/again)
• sid (from sedere: to sit/settle)
• -ent (adjective/agent)
• -ial (relating to)