inhabited

Inhabited is an adjective used to describe a place that is occupied by people. A location described as inhabited has resident human populations, as opposed to uninhabited, which lacks permanent residents. The term can apply to cities, towns, villages, islands, regions, and even features like caves or fault blocks that have evidence of human occupancy. In everyday usage, inhabited emphasizes the presence of people rather than the size of the population; a place may be sparsely inhabited or densely inhabited.

In geography and planning, the word appears in census data, land-use planning, and territorial descriptions to convey whether a settlement exists there. In archaeology and historical geography, an "inhabited site" or "inhabited region" refers to evidence of past human occupation, which may be seasonal or permanent and may span multiple periods.

Etymology: inhabited derives from inhabit, from Latin habitare 'to dwell', through Old French habiter, with the suffix -ed forming the past participle adjective.

See also: uninhabited, populated, habitation, settlement, human geography.