"Domicile" is the one location with which for legal purposes a person is considered to have the most settled and permanent connection. 13 senses: resident → 1.A person who resides in a place 2. 1. a customary dwelling place; home; residence 2. Law one's fixed place of dwelling, where one intends to reside more or less permanently. DOMICILE. "Domicile" is a legal term that does not have the same meaning as "residence" in California. Domicile is relevant to an individual's "personal law", which includes the law that governs a person's status and their property. Your domicile is the state of your permanent home, or the state you consider your home whenever you are elsewhere. Your domicile is an important place. A residence is a place of some permanency, while a domicile is a true, fixed permanent home to which an individual intends to return after an absence.