(a) Words used in this code in the present tense include the future as well as the present; words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter; the singular number includes the plural, and the plural the singular; the word person includes a corporation as well as a natural person; county includes city and county; writing includes printing and typewriting; oath includes affirmation or declaration; and every mode of oral statement, under oath or affirmation, is embraced by the term “testify,” and every written one in the term “depose”; signature or subscription includes mark, when the person cannot write, his name being written near it, by a person who writes his own name as a witness; provided, that when a signature is by mark it must in order that the same may be acknowledged or may serve as the signature to any sworn statement be witnessed by two persons who must subscribe their own names as witnesses thereto.

(b) The following words have in this code the signification attached to them in this section, unless otherwise apparent from the context:

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(1) The word “property” includes property real and personal.

(2) The words “real property” are coextensive with lands, tenements, and hereditaments.

(3) The words “personal property” include money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt.

(4) The word “month” means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed.

(5) The word “will” includes codicil.

(6) The word “section” whenever hereinafter employed refers to a section of this code, unless some other code or statute is expressly mentioned.

(7) The word “spouse” includes a registered domestic partner, as required by § 297.5 of the Family Code.

(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 50, Sec. 3. (SB 1005) Effective January 1, 2017.)