Meaning & use
chattels
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Meanings
nounplurallegallaw
Personal belongings that can be moved, especially when they are treated as property in law.
Grammar: Always plural; it never takes a singular form in this meaning, so say 'the chattels were sold', not 'the chattel was sold' when you mean a group of items.
Patterns
- household chattels
- personal chattels
- sell the chattels
When the couple divorced, the house and all its chattels were divided between them.
The auctioneer listed the chattels left in the old farmhouse, from chairs to copper pans.
Under the will, her personal chattels go to her niece and the land to her son.
nounplurallegallawtechnical
In law, any item of property other than land, including rights and interests that are not physical objects.
Grammar: Used as a technical plural in legal writing; the singular 'chattel' exists but is rare outside specialist texts.
Patterns
- goods and chattels
- chattels real
- chattels personal
The contract transferred all goods and chattels to the buyer on completion.
Lawyers distinguish between chattels real, which involve land, and chattels personal, which do not.
The court had to decide whether the machinery counted as a fixture or as a chattel.
Common combinations
- goods and chattels
- The lease says that all goods and chattels on the premises must be removed by the tenant.
- household chattels
- Insurance covered the building but not the household chattels inside it.
- personal chattels
- Her personal chattels, such as jewelry and books, were listed separately in the will.
- chattels real
- A lease is one of the chattels real, because it is tied to the use of land.
- sell the chattels
- They had to sell the chattels to pay the debts of the estate.
Synonyms and how they differ
- belongings
- Everyday and warmer than 'chattels'; use it for the things a person owns, not for legal property categories.
- possessions
- A general word for what someone owns; it does not carry the legal contrast with land that 'chattels' does.
- goods
- Often used for movable items in trade or transport, while 'chattels' belongs mainly to legal and formal contexts.
- property
- Broader and can include land and buildings, so it is not a true substitute when the point is that the items are movable.
Opposites
Word family
- chattel noun
- The singular form, meaning one movable item of property; rare outside legal writing.
Commonly confused: chattels or cattle? chattels or chattel?
chattels vs cattle
These sound similar but mean very different things: 'cattle' are cows and bulls, while 'chattels' are movable possessions.
chattels vs chattel
'Chattel' is the singular and 'chattels' the plural; learners often use the plural form when they mean just one item.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'chattels' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Chattels' means movable possessions, so selling a house and the items inside it fits. Option 0 confuses it with 'cattle', option 2 is too casual for a legal word, and option 3 wrongly uses a plural form with 'each'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “chattels”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.