tenant

1 of 2

noun

ten·​ant ˈte-nənt How to pronounce tenant (audio)
1
a
: one who has the occupation or temporary possession of lands or tenements of another
specifically : one who rents or leases a dwelling (such as a house) from a landlord
b
: one who holds or possesses real estate or sometimes personal property (such as a security) by any kind of right
2
tenantless adjective

tenant

2 of 2

verb

tenanted; tenanting; tenants

transitive verb

: to hold or occupy as or as if as a tenant : inhabit
tenantable adjective

Did you know?

Tenets vs. Tenants

Thanks to its confusingly similar pronunciation, tenant (“occupant, land-holder”) is sometimes erroneously used in place of tenet (“principle, doctrine”). Consider this example:

One of the ancient tenants of the Buddist [sic] belief is, “He who sits still, wins” –Police, January/February 1968

You will probably never make the opposite mistake (that is, substitute tenet for tenant), but if you think you might, remember that tenant and occupant both end in -ant.

Examples of tenant in a Sentence

Noun A tenant is now leasing the apartment. the laundry in the basement is for tenants only
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Its units are 94% full, with vacancies lasting 37 days getting nine looks as 47% of tenants renew. Jonathan Lansner, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Mar. 2024 Pour one out for your long-suffering tenants, who might have to eat some of those costs for you. Melvin Backman, Quartz, 7 Mar. 2024 The apartments in the building are full of tenants and when one unit becomes available, there's no issue in finding someone to lease it to. Journal Sentinel, 6 Mar. 2024 Choose your tenants wisely Moving your mom or children into an ADU is an easy sell. Keith Wagstaff, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2024 The mall opened a handful of new tenants last May, including HOKA footwear, Luli Fama swimwear and Turkish Delight. Howard Cohen, Miami Herald, 28 Feb. 2024 The story follows a group of tenants cooped up in their Lower East Side apartment building who gather on the roof every night. Catherine Duncan, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Feb. 2024 Regular inspections and upgrades support your tenants' needs, help prevent downtime and enhance the property's appeal. Ryan McKenzie, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 Other tenants at the center include Jersey Mike’s, BoSa Donuts, Moriah II Nails & Spa, Omoide Sushi and Noodle Bar, the Rose Theatre and Art by Nik Ridley. Corina Vanek, The Arizona Republic, 26 Feb. 2024
Verb
Her office plans to track case outcomes, if landlords have certificates of compliance, total eviction filings over time, landlord and tenant legal representation and demographic information. Nushrat Rahman, Detroit Free Press, 8 Feb. 2023 Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project, said the announcement gave an important nod to tenant rights at such a high government level. Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 25 Jan. 2023 The problem is that the board’s increases, whether minimal or substantial, aren’t pegged to tenant incomes in any way. Curbed, 23 June 2022 Still, landlords are including concessions to get deals, offering abatements and tenant improvement allowances. Natalie Wong, Bloomberg.com, 30 Mar. 2022 With that deadline fast approaching and politicians so far unresponsive to tenant advocates’ calls for another extension, renters and small landlords report widespread confusion and fear about falling through the cracks. Lauren Hepler, San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Mar. 2022 Should cities such as San Francisco give legal recognition to tenant unions? Will Parker, WSJ, 22 Jan. 2022 By 2020, similar units at the complex rented for approximately $1,200 per month, according to leases and tenant payment records reviewed by The Post. Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2022 Those left out Sylvia Kuster and her husband Skip currently lease most of their nearly 400-acre property to tenant farmers. cincinnati.com, 16 Sep. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tenant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun

Middle English tenaunt, tenant, borrowed from Anglo-French, "holder (of land under various circumstances)," noun derivative from present participle of tenir "to hold, have possession of," going back (with conjugation change) to Latin tenēre "to hold, occupy, possess," probably derivative, with the stative suffix *-h1i̯é- (with zero-grade ablaut) of the Indo-European verbal base *ten- "stretch, extend," whence, from a present-tense derivative *tn̥-neu̯/nu-, Sanskrit tanóti "(it) extends, spreads, endures," Greek tánytai "(s/he) stretches, extends, bends (a bow)," Welsh tannu, tanu "to spread, extend"; from a causative derivative *ton-éi̯e-, Sanskrit -tānayati "(it) extends," Germanic *þanjan- "to stretch" (whence Old English þennan "to stretch," Old Saxon thennian, Old High German dennen, Old Norse þenja, Gothic ufþanjan "to overextend"); from a present-tense derivative *ten-i̯e-, Greek teínein "to stretch, extend, spread, aim at," with verbal adjective tatós, action noun tásis, both from zero-grade *tn̥-t-

Note: This explanation of Latin tenēre is conventional, though the shift of sense (from "stretch, extend" to "extend the arm" to "grasp, hold"?) is not paralleled in other languages. Latin has no outcome of the Indo-European verb-stem formatives based on *ten- attested in other families (shown in the etymology above), having replaced *ten- in transitive/telic functions with the base *tend- (see tender entry 3). Derivatives with the stative suffix *-h1i̯é- regularly take zero-grade ablaut, which may be reflected in tenēre, though it could equally reflect full-grade *ten-. It is claimed that Umbrian tenitu (3rd singular imperative), apparently a counterpart within Italic to Latin tenēre, must reflect *ten- (apparently on the assumption that zero grade would result in *tan-; see Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages, Leiden, 2008).

Verb

derivative of tenant entry 1

First Known Use

Noun

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1b

Verb

1634, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tenant was in the 14th century

Cite this Entry

“Tenant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenant. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

tenant

1 of 2 noun
ten·​ant ˈten-ənt How to pronounce tenant (audio)
1
: one who occupies property of another especially for rent
2

tenant

2 of 2 verb
: to hold or occupy as a tenant : inhabit

Legal Definition

tenant

noun
ten·​ant ˈte-nənt How to pronounce tenant (audio)
: one who holds or possesses property by any kind of right : one who holds a tenancy in property
specifically : one who possesses property in exchange for payment of rent see also lessee compare tenancy
Etymology

Noun

Anglo-French, from Old French, from present participle of tenir to hold, from Latin tenēre

More from Merriam-Webster on tenant

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