realty

realty — noun

1. land or buildings that someone owns, thought of together as a type of property t

1.nounB2
Definition

land or buildings that someone owns, thought of together as a type of property that can be bought and sold — used especially in official or business contexts.

Example

The family sold their realty in Florida after the hurricane damaged the house.

uncountable: their realty (not 'realties')

Jabari works for a realty company that specialises in commercial buildings.

attributive use: realty company

Common collocations
  • realty market
  • realty company
  • realty agent
  • realty firm
  • realty development
  • realty investment
  • parcel of realty
  • piece of realty
  • commercial realty
  • residential realty
Synonyms
  • real estate

    the everyday term; far more frequent in speech and general writing

  • property

    broader in meaning — includes both realty and personal possessions

  • land

    narrower — refers specifically to the ground, not the buildings on it

Antonyms
  • personal property

    movable possessions (furniture, cars, cash) rather than land or buildings

  • chattels

    a legal term for tangible movable property

Grammar Patterns

realty + noun

a piece/parcel of realty

Usage Note

In everyday conversation the phrase 'real estate' is far more common than 'realty'. 'Realty' appears mainly in formal writing, legal documents, and business names (e.g., 'ABC Realty'). It is an uncountable noun — do not write 'realties'.

Common Mistakes

They bought two realties in the city.
They bought two pieces of realty in the city.
realty is uncountable and cannot take a plural -s.
We need to find a realty.' (meaning a house)
We need to find a piece of realty.' or 'We need to find some real estate.
realty refers to the category of property, not a specific building.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Real estate' is the everyday term that speakers of English use most often when talking about buying, selling, or investing in land and buildings. 'Realty' carries the same meaning but sounds more technical or legal — you will see it on office signs ('Smith & Jones Realty') and in contracts, but rarely in casual conversation. 'Property' is broader, covering both land/buildings and personal possessions, so 'a piece of property' could mean a house or a car depending on context. 'Land' is narrower: it refers specifically to the ground itself, not the structures on it. 'Premises' is narrower still, pointing to a specific building or site (e.g., 'smoking is not allowed on the premises'). In a sentence: 'The real estate agent showed us several properties, but we only liked the one on the larger parcel of land.'

real estateproperty ↗land ↗premises

Etymology

LatinAnglo-FrenchEnglish

Shortened form of 'real estate' or 'real property'. The word 'real' here comes from Latin 'res' meaning 'thing' or 'matter', used in law to refer to things that are fixed and immovable (as opposed to 'personal property' which can be moved). The '-ty' suffix forms abstract nouns, so 'realty' essentially means 'the quality or category of being real property'.