domicile
Americanverb (used with object)
noun
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a dwelling place
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a permanent legal residence
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commerce the place where a bill of exchange is to be paid
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of domicile
First recorded in 1470–80; from Middle French, from Latin domicilium, equivalent to domicol(a) ( domi-, combining form of domus “house” + -cola “dweller”; see colonus) + -ium -ium
Explanation
Domicile is a fancy word for the place where you live. Whether it's a mansion on 5th Avenue or a one-room shack in the desert, if you live in it, it's your domicile. If you live somewhere — such as in a house, on a houseboat, or in an apartment — then you have a domicile, or simply, housing. In the eyes of the law, your domicile is your legal place of residence. You can turn domicile into a verb, and say that you are currently domiciled in the Caribbean — but you'd probably only use that terminology if you were on trial for something like tax evasion.
Vocabulary lists containing domicile
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The curfew imposed last month required all troops to be back on base or at "an off-base domicile" from midnight to 5:00 am.
From Barron's ● Nov. 2, 2026
“Establish Florida domicile first, cleanly and provably. Then time the big withdrawals for after that’s done. The home sale and the distribution strategy aren’t two decisions — they’re one decision with two moving parts.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
The majority opinion roundly rejected Alito and Thomas’ arguments about domicile.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
It said alongside earnings on March 19 that the board was reviewing options to boost shareholder value, including acquisitions, its domicile, and listing venues.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
With an indignant squawk, Rose led the way into their new domicile, tempted by a trail of grain.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
His co-author and Wharton economics colleague Kent Smetters says tools such as Zoom make it easier than before to move domiciles and avoid a state or local wealth tax.
From Barron's ● Jan. 3, 2026
Housing Authority, the Department of Employment Services and agency domiciles of the deputy mayor for public safety.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2022
Spottiswoode has a good reason for poking around avian domiciles.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2022
Those are supposed to be public spaces, not domiciles.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 31, 2021
Fact: Many of the domiciles in Century Village do not have family rooms with desks.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
Thomas read into that the requirement that their parents be domiciled here.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
“Where you’re domiciled on Dec. 31 can determine which state taxes your entire retirement income for that year,” said Jeff Judge, a certified financial planner and managing partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
Black people who were enslaved were undoubtedly domiciled here, but the same is not true of temporary visitors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
“If Congress intended to limit American citizenship to the children of those domiciled in the United States, nothing in the succinct language of the Citizenship Clause conveyed that design,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
He was descended from an aristocratic family of German stock but domiciled in Russia since the fourteenth century.
From Prophets of Dissent : Essays on Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Nietzsche and Tolstoy by Otto Heller
The benefits of domiciling in the U.S. rarely outweighed the risks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
Many asset managers enjoy lower tax rates by domiciling funds in countries such as Ireland and Luxembourg.
From Reuters ● Jun. 2, 2021
That would be like domiciling at an EconoLodge.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2013
But his surveys of Manhattan subways, sewage, traffic and domiciling reveal conditions so overwhelmingly horrible that even Dreamer Strauss loses heart.
From Time Magazine Archive
We have mentioned the domiciling in Chester Square, which took place in February 1858, perhaps on the strength of the additional income from Oxford.
From Matthew Arnold by George Saintsbury
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
