rightful heir
True bloodline claimant
A rightful heir is the person with a legitimate legal or moral claim to inherit something—typically property, a title, or a throne.
The phrase emphasizes that the claim is valid and proper, often in contrast to usurpers or pretenders: The rightful heir to the estate was found living in obscurity.
In fiction, rightful heirs frequently appear in stories of lost royalty or contested succession.
- successorOne who replaces another
- next in linePositioned to succeed immediately
- throneCeremonial chair for sovereigns
- birthrightEntitlement from origin
- crownSovereign's ornamental headpiece
lineage · bloodline · dynasty · claimant · firstborn · line of succession · primogeniture · legitimate · kingdom · entitlement · descendant · ancestral · patrimony · sovereignty · prince · succession · disputed · royal
- heirscoheirs, beneficiary, beneficiaries, successor, successors
- inheritanceinheritances, bequest, bequests, beneficiary, beneficiaries
- royal successionthrone, succession, line of succession, order of succession, succession line
- successionline of succession, primogeniture, successor, predecessor, next in line
- succession crisessuccession crisis, succession dispute, disputed succession, succession war, war of succession
- legal recipientsbeneficiary, legatee, grantee, donee, assignee
rightful heirusurper
Illegal power seizer
pretender · impostor · interloper · illegitimate heir · supplanter
right, rightful, rightfully, rightfulness, rights, righted, righting, righteous, righteousness