habitada

Habitada is the feminine singular form of the past participle of the Spanish verb habitar, meaning to inhabit or dwell. As an adjective, habitada describes a feminine noun that is inhabited or occupied and agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies (habitado for masculine singular, habitadas for feminine plural, etc.). The word derives from Latin habitāre, meaning to dwell.

In usage, habitada is common in geographic, architectural, historical, and archaeological contexts to indicate that a place has been inhabited by humans. Examples include: “La región habitada más antigua data de la Edad del Bronce,” or “La casa habitada por una familia se encuentra en venta.” In archaeology or anthropology, phrases such as “sitio habitado” or “asentamiento habitado” refer to locations with evidence of past habitation.

Distinctions and related forms: habitada is distinct from habitable, which in Spanish means able to be inhabited. Habitable describes the capacity of a place to be inhabited (por ejemplo, una casa habitable), whereas habitada states that the place already is inhabited. The masculine counterpart is habitado, and the plural forms are habitados (masculine) and habitadas (feminine).

Notes: habitada is not typically used as a proper noun unless it is part of a place name. As with other participles used as adjectives, its function is descriptive and it bears the same syntactic behavior as other gendered adjectives in Spanish.