legal residence
1
3.9
- noun
- /ˈliːɡəl ˈrɛzɪdəns/
- Formal
:
domicilio legal
- There is no divorce in South Carolina, and that is Rhea's legal residence now.
Examples
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My legal residence is a shack in Portugal.
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I get my mail and phone calls here... which means this is my legal residence.
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If we gave them a path to legal residence and citizenship, many of the complaints about them would disappear.
Blog text (22) -
There were 1,062,040 immigrants who were granted legal residence in 2011.
Blog text (23) -
I've owned the house; I've never changed; it's my legal residence.
Blog text (26) -
After living in several states, she finally settled down in her legal residence in California.
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To register to vote, you must provide proof of your legal residence in the district.
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Establishing his legal residence took longer than expected due to paperwork issues.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A place where someone lives and feels they belong
72
3.3
Living in a place for a period, often for legal reasons
65
2.9
A house or apartment where someone lives
9
7.6
The place where a person lives permanently for legal and tax purposes
How Permanent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'legal' (pertaining to the law) modifies 'residence' (place where someone lives), so the phrase clearly denotes the place someone is legally established. This construction and sense are cross-linguistically common and follow standard noun modification patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Legal residence comes from the simple idea that your residence (home) is chosen and recorded by the legal system so everyone knows which house is yours and where you plan to return. So it means the place you 'officially' live for things like 'taxes' and 'voting'.