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private property

private property

68 2.8
Things you can move, like cars or jewelry, that belong to one person, not land
  • noun
translation icon : bienes personales
  • I suppose you realize this is private property.
  • private property rights
  • laws protecting private property
  • protection of private property

Because part of what's in private property is you keep your hands off my stuff, I keep my hands off your stuff, right?

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Examples

Synonyms

personal effects
vsprivate property
33 3.5

Small personal items a person carries, like clothes or jewelry

covers a wider set of movable items beyond just portable belongings
personal property
vsprivate property
  • Specialized
16 3.1

Things a person owns that can be moved, like furniture or jewelry

is the broader everyday term for movable items
personal estate
vsprivate property
  • Formal
1 6.1

Things someone owns that can be moved, not land and buildings, like a car or jewelry

is the general movable items label, not the formal phrase
personalty
vsprivate property
  • Formal
9.9

Things a person owns that can be moved, not land or buildings

is the common nontechnical label for these possessions

Antonyms

Property owned by the government that people can use

How Private

private property
68 2.8

Surface Forms

Morphology

private + property

The meaning is directly compositional: 'private' (belonging to/reserved for specific people) simply modifies 'property' (an asset owned by a person), yielding property owned by an individual or not public. This adjectival construction is common and cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can reliably infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Private property comes from the simple idea of things kept by one person. Private means personal and not for everyone, and property means things you own, so the phrase means 'things that belong to one person rather than to everyone'.