leasehold

Word family

• lease
  nounB2
• lease
  verbB2
• leaseholder
  nounC1
• freehold
  nounC1
• freeholder
  nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

These four words sit on a single map of property rights. A 'lease' is the written contract itself — the document two parties sign. A 'leasehold' is the long-term right that the lease creates, often treated as a piece of property in its own right that the holder can sell or pass on. 'Tenancy' is the more general and often shorter-term right to occupy a place in return for rent, typical of an apartment renter on a one-year contract. 'Freehold' sits at the opposite pole: the unlimited, permanent ownership of land and any building on it. So Hyun might sign a lease (the document) that gives her a leasehold (a thirty-year right) on a flat whose freehold (the underlying land) belongs to someone else, while her brother holds a one-year tenancy on a similar place down the road.

Common collocations

Etymology

Built in English from the noun 'lease' (a contract for the temporary use of property) plus the noun '-hold', meaning a thing that is held or kept. The compound dates from the late 1500s in English law and was modelled on the older pair 'freehold' (free, unlimited holding) and 'copyhold' (an old form of tenure recorded by copy). So a 'leasehold' is literally 'a holding granted by lease', framed as a counterpart to ownership held without time limit.