In the laws of the United States of America, the 'real' in 'real estate' means relating to a thing (res/'rei', thing, from O.Fr. 'reel', from L.L. 'realis' 'actual', from Latin. 'res', 'matter, thing'), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between 'real' property (land and anything affixed to it) and 'personal' property or chattels (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between 'immovable property', which would transfer title along with the land, and 'movable property', which a person could lawfully take and would retain title to on disposal of the land.

Real estate as "real property" in the U.K.

In British usage, "real property", often shortened to just "property", generally refers to land and fixtures, while the term "real estate" is used mostly in the context of probate law, and means all interests in land held by a deceased person at death, excluding interests in money arising under a trust for sale of or charged on land.[4] As one main object of "probate" is to "prove" title to the real estate interests in the property held by a deceased person at the time of death, and the earliest recorded use the word in this capacity is 1463,[5] it is reasonable to assume this tradition dates back to the death of the first owner of the 'allodial land' referred in the Etymology section above to die.