chattels

IPA/tʃˈatəlz/
IPA/tʃˈæɾəlz/

chattels — noun

1. items of personal property that someone owns and can carry or move with them, su

1.nounC2
Definition

items of personal property that someone owns and can carry or move with them, such as furniture, clothes, or animals, but not land or buildings.

Example

Tariq packed all his goods and chattels into a small van and drove to his new flat.

fixed phrase: goods and chattels

The old will left the house to one daughter and the chattels to the other.

common contrast: house (real property) vs chattels (movable property)

Common collocations
  • goods and chattels
  • household chattels
  • personal chattels
  • divide the chattels
  • list the chattels
Synonyms
  • belongings

    everyday word; chattels is formal/legal

  • possessions

    neutral and general; chattels narrows to movable items

  • movables

    also a legal term; closely overlaps with chattels

Antonyms

Grammar Patterns

usually in the phrase 'goods and chattels'

Usage Note

Almost always plural and most commonly seen in the fixed legal phrase 'goods and chattels'. The singular 'chattel' is even more technical and appears mainly in legal writing. The word excludes land and buildings (real property) — that is its core contrast.

Common Mistakes

My house is one of my chattels.
My house is real property, not a chattel.
chattels are movable items only; houses and land are excluded.
She owns a single chattels.
She owns a single chattel.
the singular form drops the -s.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All four words refer to things a person owns, but they sit at very different registers and scopes. 'Belongings' is the everyday word — a traveller talks about gathering their belongings before leaving a hotel. 'Possessions' is slightly more formal and broader: it can include land, money in the bank, even rights, not just physical objects. 'Movables' and 'chattels' are both legal terms; 'chattels' is the more traditional, often appearing in wills and contracts in the fixed phrase 'goods and chattels'. The key contrast all three legal-leaning words share with 'belongings' is the exclusion of real estate: a house is a possession but never a chattel. In daily speech, say 'I packed my belongings'; in a legal document, write 'the deceased's goods and chattels'.

chattels ↗belongings ↗possessions ↗movables ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • goods and chattels
  • household chattels
  • personal chattels
  • livestock and chattels

Phrases

  • divide the chattels
  • list the chattels
  • leave the chattels to (someone)

Prepositions

  • chattels of (a person)

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Chattels entered English in the 13th century from Old French 'chatel', meaning property or goods. That French word came from Latin 'capitale', meaning 'wealth' or 'stock' (literally 'of the head', from 'caput' meaning head — livestock was counted by the head). The same Latin root gave English the word 'cattle', which originally meant any movable wealth before it narrowed to mean cows and similar farm animals. 'Capital' in the financial sense came later through a different route from the same Latin source.