heiress-apparent

A form of heiress apparent — A female heir apparent.

Meanings

nounheiress-apparent (plural heiresses-apparent)

plural heiresses-apparent

  1. alternativeAlternative form of heiress apparent.

    Fortunately for herself, the day of trial found Bell possessed of spirit and energy not always remaining to those who have been heiresses-apparent.

    1851 April 19, “From ‘Tait’s Magazine.’ A Legend of Ulster. The Burning of Belfast Castle.”, in The North American Miscellany: A Weekly Magazine of Choice Selections from the Current Literature of This Country and Europe, volume I, number 12, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.; Philadelphia, Pa.: Albert Palmer and Company, […], page 547, column 1
    2 more examples

    Apprehensive that a too intimate connexion with foreign interests might interfere with their own, that sagacious people usually allied their princesses of the blood to the minor reigning rajahs of India, and their heiresses-apparent to such of the offspring of the same princes as were out of the view of a crown.

    1816 August 1, “The Hymeneal Visions of the Princess Kaphira”, in The British Lady’s Magazine, volume 2 of 4, number 20, London, page 80, column 2

    Up to the age of forty-eight, Zoë lived in retirement in the Gynecea, with her eldest sister, Theodora. The two heiresses-apparent to the throne had thus become “old maids.”

    1907, Richard Davey, “Round and About Stambul”, in The Sultan and His Subjects, new edition, London: Chatto & Windus, page 456
Cite this entry
APA

heiress-apparent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heiress-apparent

MLA

“heiress-apparent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heiress-apparent. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “heiress-apparent,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heiress-apparent.

Source: heiress-apparent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.