In C++, the term memory ownership refers to the entity that is responsible for enforcing the lifetime of a particular memory allocation. In reality, we rarely talk about the ownership of raw memory. Usually, we manage the ownership and the lifetime of the objects that reside in said memory, and memory ownership is really just shorthand for object ownership. The concept of memory ownership is closely tied to that of resource ownership. First of all, memory is a resource. It is not the only resource a program can manage, but it is by far the most commonly used one. Second, the C++ way of managing resources is to have objects own them. Thus, the problem of managing resources is reduced to the problem of managing the owning objects, which, as we just learned, is what we really mean when we talk about memory ownership. In this context, memory ownership is about owning more than memory, and mismanaged ownership can leak, miscount, or lose track of any resource that can be controlled by the program—memory, mutexes, files, database handles, cat videos, airline seat reservations, or nuclear warheads.