tenant
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Someone who holds a lease.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehnuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛnənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
One who holds a lease (a tenancy).
Any occupant who dwells in a place
by extension
One who has possession of any place.
property lawby extension
One who owns real estate other than via allodial title.
Misconstruction of tenet.
verb
transitive
To inhabit.
Occupy as a tenant
To hold as, or be, a tenant.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: One who holds a lease (a tenancy).
Used this way, tenant is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use tenant
- “The landlord can evict a tenant who doesn't pay the rent.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A farmer who works land owned by someone else.
A tenant whose legal right to retain possession of buildings or lands lasts as long as they (or some other person) live.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.