tenant

C1 Topic:People & Society

US /ˈtɛ.nənt/ See IPA manual

Freq #9897

Meanings

1

noun
A person who pays rent to use land or a building owned by someone else.

The landlord can evict a tenant who doesn't pay the rent.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a person who pays rent to... renter leaseholder lessee occupant

Word family

Forms tenantedtenantingtenantsuntenanted

Derived forms multitenancyse-tenantsub-tenanttenancytenant-in-chieftenant-righttenantless tenantryter-tenantterre-tenantundertenant

Related forms tenement tenet

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

tenant farmer
a farmer who works land rented from someone else

Noun + noun

Simplified etymology

Tenant comes from an Old French word meaning literally “holding,” ultimately from Latin tenere “to hold.”

Etymology

From Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre (“hold, keep”).

*ten- Proto-Indo-European tenaunt Middle English tenant Old French teneō Latin

View etymology graph ->

Topics

People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# tenant

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈtɛ.nənt/
**Frequency rank:** 9897

## Meanings
1. A person who pays rent to use land or a building owned by someone else.

## Examples
- The landlord can evict a tenant who doesn't pay the rent.

## Derived Forms
- multitenancy
- se-tenant
- sub-tenant
- tenancy
- tenant-in-chief
- tenant-right
- tenantless
- tenantry
- ter-tenant
- terre-tenant
- undertenant

## Related Forms
- tenement
- tenet

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *ten-
- Root: tenaunt
- Root: tenant
- Root: teneō

## Etymology
From Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre (“hold, keep”).

## AI Etymology
Tenant comes from Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre (“hold, keep”). The historical chain includes *ten- (Proto-Indo-European), tenaunt (Middle English), tenaunt (Anglo-Norman), tenant (Old French), and teneō (Latin). The surrounding word family includes derived forms such as multitenancy, se-tenant, sub-tenant, and tenancy and related forms such as tenement and tenet. In present use it covers a person who pays rent to use land or a building owned by someone else.

## Topics
- People & Society
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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