# ​[uncountable] The act of living in a place.

• They looked around for any signs of habitation.

• The houses were unfit for human habitation (= not clean or safe enough for people to live in).

# [countable] (formal) A place where people live.

• The road serves the scattered habitations along the coast. 

(scattered /ˈskætəd/ (adj): ​spread far apart over a wide area or over a long period of time)

# (formal) ​Inhabit something: to live in a particular place.

• Some of the rare species that inhabit the area are under threat. (species /ˈspiːʃiːz/ n)

• He reflected on what a strange world Stephen and Veronica inhabited.

# The act of living in a place.

• After many generations of inhabitation, the valley had become fertile and prosperous. 

+ fertile /ˈfɜːtaɪl/ (adj): (of land or soil) that plants grow well in;

+ prosperous /ˈprɒspərəs/ (adj): rich and successful.

• This colony will be the first stage in the permanent inhabitation of a new planet.

+ colony /ˈkɒləni/ (n): [countable] a country or an area that is governed by people from another, more powerful, country; thuộc địa.

# The fact of living in a particular place, especially when this gives you particular rights.

• The court decided that inhabitancy was not enough to ensure that a person held legal rights.

• Some of the people made a living from the land on the basis of custom and inhabitancy.

• The law applies to all outsiders who have inhabitancy in the province.

• The little cottage gave an air of cheerfulness and inhabitancy to the scene.

• A new wave of migrants came over the mountains and established inhabitancy in the region.

# ​A person or an animal that lives in a particular place.

• The oldest inhabitant of the village

• It is a town of about 10.000 inhabitants.

# [countable, uncountable] ​The place where a particular type of animal or plant is normally found.

• The panda's natural habitat is the bamboo forest.

• The marshes provide a rich habitat for water plants.

• The destruction of wildlife habitat.

# ​With people or animals living there.

• The island is no longer inhabited.

• The building is now inhabited by birds.

• The cottage had not been inhabited for a while.

• The island used to be inhabited.

OPPOSITE uninhabited;

# ​With no people living there; not inhabited.

• An uninhabited island

• The area is largely uninhabited.

• They landed on an uninhabited island off the Newfoundland coast.

# (also more frequent habitable) ​Suitable for people to live in.

• Soon we will be running out of inhabitable space on the planet.

OPPOSITE uninhabitable;

# (also less frequent inhabitable) ​Suitable for people to live in.

• The house should be habitable by the new year.

• The room was barely habitable.

• They’ve done their best to make the house habitable.

OPPOSITE uninhabitable;

# ​Not fit to live in; impossible to live in.

• The building was totally uninhabitable.

• Houses made uninhabitable by radioactive contamination.

# ​[intransitive] (+ adv./prep.) (informal) To go or leave somewhere in a hurry; to go quickly.

• I'd better scoot or I'll be late.

• They scooted off to Dublin for the weekend.

• I'm scooting off to the seaside for a few days' holiday.

• I'll have to scoot (= leave quickly) or I'll miss my train.

• I need to scoot over to the post office.

# (also scooch) [intransitive] (North American English) + adv./prep. to move a short distance, especially while sitting down; to scoot is also to slide while sitting.

• Scoot over and make room for your sister.

# (also coresidential) Living in the same home, or relating to this living arrangement.

• Patients with a co-residential carer.

• We may see further erosion of these multigenerational co-residential living arrangements.

(erosion /ɪˈrəʊʒn/ n: the process of gradually destroying something or making it weaker over a period of time; the fact of a good quality or situation being gradually lost or destroyed).

# that is not used for people to live in.

• The new buildings will be non-residential.

• It’s a quiet, non-residential area.