heiress
[ Cusually singular ]
someone who now has responsibility for dealing with a problem or situation that existed or was created earlier: （负责继续处理某一问题或局面的）继承者
heir toThe French finance minister is heir to a tradition of central control that goes back to Louis XIV.法国的财政部长继承了中央集权财政管理方式的传统，该传统可以追溯到路易十四时代。
[ Cusually singular ]
someone who continues to do the work of someone important who has died, or someone who has the same position as the previous person who held that position（接替某重要位置的）接班人，继任者

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Inheriting & bequeathing
assign
beneficiary
bequeath
bequest
cadger
co-executor
executrix
heir apparent
heiress
heirless
heirloom
inherit
inheritance
legacy
patrimony
pond life
pond scum
primogeniture
probate
settle

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Replacing and exchanging

heir | American Dictionary

heir
noun[ C ]
us/eər/(femaleheiress, us/ˈeər·əs/)
a person who will receive or already has received money or property from another person at the time of that other person’s death:
My cousin Robert is the only heir to my uncle’s fortune.

heir | Business English

heir
noun[ C ]
uk /eər/us
LAW
the person who legally receives money, property, or possessions from someone who has died:
Court documents showed that each heir was entitled to land and shares of stock in the businesses.
heir to sthWhen her father died, she became the sole heir to his £40,000 estate.
heir of sthThe heirs of the company's founder control about 39% of the business.
someone who becomes the new leader of a large organization or company after the old leader leaves:
heir to sbHe was a potential heir to retiring CEO Jack Welch.

Examples of heir

heir
Not all the heirs of the landowners who tried to take advantage of this process achieved positive results.
After his death in 1887 the canero left his heirs a house, some furniture, a few clothes, and one piece of silver.
Conversely, the heirs may struggle over their inheritance and jeopardise the continuity of the firm.
Too many of them, however, were not only cr itics of this legacy, but also its heirs.
Her father's prohibiting any of his children from marrying may be seen as his wish not to have heirs of mixed blood.
We are the heirs, the beneficiaries of a previous humanity which dared on our behalf.
Wealthy farmers could afford to divide their land among multiple heirs.
Both were heirs to earlier trading centres and took shape within existing business networks and well-established commercial institutions.
The late medieval household sometimes contained two ie, the father's and his heir's, and thus two wives.
Only when such male heirs are not forthcoming, would female heirs qualify.
Although gender-neutral in principle, the provision of virtually unrestricted testamentary powers can be used to disinherit potential female heirs.
The degree to which this translates to behavior and the intentions of heirs is not known.
Not surprisingly, however, given the incomparably greater structural discontinuities, we can detect far fewer 'natural heirs'.
Overall, the study questions accepted categories like family patriarchs, helpless women, independent heirs, and the landed\\middle-class divide.
American colonials were heirs to a long tradition saying that "the government of any state must form a nurturing bond with religious institutions" (p. 45).
See all examples of heir
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations withheir

heir

These are words often used in combination with heir.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

direct heir
If that were so, and you could find the directheir who ought to receive the property, it might be a case for investigation.
From the
Hansard archive