eminent domain

1. 1.

   the right of the state to take private property for public use; the Fifth Amendment that was added to the Constitution of the United States requires that just compensation be made

   Broaderlegal right

   law

Questions about eminent domain

What does eminent domain mean?

eminent domain means "the right of the state to take private property for public use; the Fifth Amendment that was added to the Constitution of the United States requires that just compensation be made".

Is eminent domain a common word?

eminent domain is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.