legatee

noun

leg·​a·​tee ˌle-gə-ˈtē How to pronounce legatee (audio)
: one to whom a legacy is bequeathed or a devise is given

Examples of legatee in a Sentence

the couple had no children, so they declared their nephew their only legatee
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Trump and allies, meanwhile, often cast him as legatee of Reagan. David Jackson, USA TODAY, 8 Sep. 2024 Humans, as legatees of this heritage, learn by seeing and visualizing. Stephen Jay Gould, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019 Since at least World War I, some legatees of Ivy League privilege have deployed their advantages to oppose injustices and support workers, often against these defectors’ own comfortable families’ and college classmates’ interests, and often at some risk to themselves. Jim Sleeper, The New Republic, 4 Sep. 2023 The couple whom Perry sees on the house tour are at once beneficiaries of the school’s past participation in slavery and legatees of an effort of historical recovery that Swarns’s book both chronicles and carries forward. Paul Elie, The New Yorker, 27 June 2023 Trust Dylan, Eliot’s most intrepid legatee, to turn what others view as a monument into an action poem. Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2022 Their hosts were Walter Arensberg, a Pittsburgh steel heir, and his wife, Louise Stevens, an even wealthier Massachusetts textile-industry legatee. Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2022 Columbus was not, as is well-known to the ungrateful modern-day legatees of his conquest, a perfect man. John Hirschauer, National Review, 14 Oct. 2019 Under the bill, a couple could pass on up to $22 million in assets without their legatees having to pay the tax. Author: Jeff Stein, Damian Paletta, Anchorage Daily News, 20 Dec. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1627, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of legatee was in 1627

Dictionary Entries Near legatee

Cite this Entry

“Legatee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/legatee. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

legatee

noun
leg·​a·​tee ˌleg-ə-ˈtē How to pronounce legatee (audio)
: a person to whom a legacy is left

Legal Definition

legatee

noun
le·​ga·​tee ˌle-gə-ˈtē How to pronounce legatee (audio)
: one to whom a legacy is bequeathed compare devisee, heir, next of kin, successor
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