Definition
Included on a formal list; having been placed on an official enumeration of persons, property, securities, or species subject to a particular legal regime or regulatory consequence.
The term carries meaningfully different weight depending on the legal context in which it appears:
1. Taxation. Property or persons "listed" for tax purposes have been formally entered on the assessment rolls, making them subject to levy. The act of listing triggers obligations and rights — a property owner who fails to list taxable property may face penalties; a property correctly listed establishes the baseline for valuation challenges.
2. Securities and Financial Markets. A security is "listed" when it has been admitted to trading on a recognized exchange, having satisfied the exchange's requirements for disclosure, capitalization, and governance. Listed status contrasts with over-the-counter or unlisted trading.
3. Real Estate. A property is "listed" when a seller has entered into a listing agreement with a broker, authorizing the broker to market the property. The type of listing agreement determines the broker's rights to a commission.
4. Environmental and Regulatory Law. A species is "listed" under the Endangered Species Act when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service formally designates it as threatened or endangered through rulemaking. Listing triggers the full set of ESA protections, including the Section 9 take prohibition and the Section 7 consultation requirement for federal agency actions.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Simple past tense and past participle of "list" — i.e., to have enumerated, recorded, or catalogued something.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To have enrolled or registered; also, in commercial usage, to have offered or priced goods for sale.
The common meaning — merely having written something down — understates the legal significance. In law, "listed" is a term of operative consequence: being placed on a particular official list is itself a legal act that creates rights, duties, liabilities, or protections. The difference between listed and unlisted is often the difference between being subject to a tax, entitled to a broker's commission, eligible for exchange trading, or protected from federal taking.
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Common Confusion
"Listed" is sometimes loosely used interchangeably with "registered," "recorded," or "enrolled," but these are distinct acts with distinct legal effects. Registration typically refers to formal filing with a government authority (e.g., a registered security under the Securities Act); recording refers to placing an instrument in a public land record; enrollment is specific to courts and legislative bodies. Being listed for tax purposes does not mean a property is registered in any other sense. In the ESA context, the listing process is a formal federal rulemaking distinct from any state-level registration of protected species.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
Listed property (taxation): Real or personal property formally entered on assessment rolls for ad valorem tax purposes.
Listed security: A security admitted to trading on a national or regional securities exchange, as opposed to unlisted or over-the-counter securities.
Listed real estate: Property subject to a broker's listing agreement, with the type of agreement (exclusive right to sell, exclusive agency, or open listing) determining the scope of the broker's authority and commission rights.
Listed species: A species formally designated as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act through notice-and-comment rulemaking.
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Why It Matters in Research
The central challenge with "listed" in historical legal sources is that the word's operative meaning is entirely context-dependent, and older sources — including both editions of Black's — address only the taxation context. A researcher relying solely on historical dictionary entries will miss the modern regulatory and real estate dimensions entirely.
In taxation research, historical sources are reliable: the core meaning of "listed" as enrollment on a tax roll has been stable. But the practical machinery — what must be listed, by whom, by when, and with what consequence for omission — varies sharply by jurisdiction and era. State assessment statutes from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are the primary sources; uniform assessment reform statutes from the mid-twentieth century altered listing procedures substantially in many states.
In securities research, "listed" carries an entire regulatory framework. The distinction between listed and unlisted securities drove much of early twentieth-century exchange regulation and remains fundamental to understanding the tiered structure of modern U.S. securities markets.
In real estate research, listing agreements are the gateway to broker commission disputes, which constitute a large body of state case law. The type of listing is dispositive on commission rights; researchers should not assume "listed" alone describes the broker's entitlement.
In environmental research, ESA listing is one of the most litigated federal administrative actions. The listing determination, the critical habitat designation, and the Section 7 consultation process are interconnected but legally distinct steps. Corpus materials on ESA litigation cluster around challenges to listing decisions, designation of critical habitat, and agency duties triggered by listed status — these are not interchangeable.
Cross-corpus connections: Tax listing materials appear throughout the Law Mind corpus in property and state tax sources. Securities listing appears in corporate and securities materials. Real estate listing runs through the transactional and brokerage materials. ESA listing spans environmental and administrative law sources.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's Law Dictionary (1st and 2nd editions) define "listed" identically: "Included in a list; put on a list, particularly on a list of taxable persons or property." The entries are brief and narrowly focused on the taxation context — consistent with the period in which those editions were compiled, when the property tax assessment list was the most legally consequential form of official enumeration.
Neither edition addresses securities listing, real estate listing agreements, or regulatory listing of the kind now familiar from environmental law. This is not an error in the historical sources; those legal categories either did not exist or had not yet developed sufficient doctrinal definition to warrant dictionary treatment. Researchers using these editions as interpretive guides for modern regulatory materials should treat the historical definition as a partial account only.
The taxation definition in both editions is accurate as far as it goes. The phrase "particularly on a list of taxable persons or property" signals that while the term is broad, the editors understood the taxation usage as primary. That prioritization remains useful when reading historical property tax statutes and decisions.
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Jurisdictional Note
In the taxation context, listing requirements are creatures of state statute, and the procedural rules — who must list, what property is subject to listing, and the consequences of failure to list — vary considerably across jurisdictions and have changed over time within jurisdictions. In securities markets, "listed" status is governed at the federal level through exchange rules and SEC oversight, producing nationally uniform definitions. ESA listing is exclusively federal.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Listing Agreements — Exclusive Right to Sell, Exclusive Agency, Open Listing, and Duration (The Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia)
Endangered Species Act — Listing, Critical Habitat, and Section 7 Consultation (The Law Mind Environmental & Energy Law Encyclopedia)
Endangered Species Act (ESA) — Listing, Critical Habitat, and Section 7 Consultation (The Law Mind Administrative Law & Government Encyclopedia)
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