Skip to main content
PlainSpell

denizen

den·i·zen/ˈdɛn ə zən/noun, verb

denizen is spelled D-E-N-I-Z-E-N: 7 letters and 3 syllables (den·i·zen). It appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 79,518th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, denizen means “An inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in a certain place” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of denizen is denizens.

How many letters and syllables are in denizen?

Letters7: D-E-N-I-Z-E-N
Syllables3: den·i·zen
In writingabout once in every 7 million words; the 79,518th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is denizen?

Denizen appears about once in every 7 million words in written English, the 79,518th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce denizen?

  • UK /ˈdɛn.ɪ.zən/
  • US /ˈdɛn ə zən/

Denizen has 3 syllables, split den·i·zen in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-denizen.ogg, En-au-denizen.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of denizen

  • denizens plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • denizening participle, present
  • denizened participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does denizen mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in a certain place.

    The giant squid is one of many denizens of the deep.

  2. 2

    One who frequents a place.

    The denizens of that pub are of the roughest sort.

  3. 3

    UKA person with rights between those of naturalized citizen and resident alien (roughly permanent resident), obtained through letters patent.

  4. 4

    An animal or plant from a particular range or habitat.

    The bald eagle is a denizen of the northern part of the state.

  5. 5

    A foreign word that has become naturalised in another language in terms of use, but not in terms of form.

verb

  1. 1

    UKTo grant rights of citizenship to; to naturalize.

    He was denizened to Ireland after fleeing his home country.

  2. 2

    To provide with denizens; to populate with adopted or naturalized occupants.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Denizen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcitoyen, résident, habitant (an inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in), habitué (one who frequents a place)
GermanBewohner, Bewohnerin (an inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in), Stammgast, Stammgästin (one who frequents a place), teilweise eingebürgerter Ausländer ((UK) a citizen naturalized through letters…)
Portuguesemorador (an inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in), frequentador (one who frequents a place)
Spanishhabitante (an inhabitant of a place; one who dwells in), habitual (one who frequents a place)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does denizen come from?

From Middle English denisein, from Old French denzein, from deinz (“within”) + -ein, from Late Latin dē intus (“from within”), whence French dans.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after denizen