heir

noun

/eər/

/er/

Definition

C2 [C] a person who will legally receive money, property, or a title from another person, especially an older member of the same family, when that other person dies: The guest of honour was the Romanov heir to the throne of all Russia. Despite having a large family, they still had no son and heir. → See also heiressInheriting and bequeathing › [C usually singular] someone who now has responsibility for dealing with a problem or situation that existed or was created earlier: The French finance minister is heir to a tradition of central control that goes back to Louis XIV.Replacing and exchanging › [C usually singular] someone who continues to do the work of someone important who has died or who has the same position as they hadReplacing and exchanging

(Definition of heir noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

Browse related topics

You are looking at an entry to do with Inheriting & bequeathing, but you might be interested in these topics from the Trials and court cases topic area: