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Pertain comes to English via Anglo-French from the Latin verb pertinēre, meaning "to reach to" or "to belong." Pertinēre, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix per- (meaning "through") and tenēre ("to hold"). Tenēre is a popular root in English words and often manifests with the -tain spelling that can be seen in pertain. Other descendants include abstain, contain, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, and sustain, to name a few of the more common ones. Not every -tain word has tenēre in its ancestry, though. Ascertain, attain, and certain are certainly exceptions. And a few tenēre words don't follow the usual pattern: tenacious and tenure are two.
Examples of pertain in a Sentence
Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2025
People from across all walks of life are asked around 50 questions pertaining to the economy, personal finances, job prospects, inflation expectations and the like.
—Joanne Hsu, The Conversation, 10 Oct. 2025
The prosecutor's office had no additional information to provide in the ongoing investigation on Monday while citing New Jersey law pertaining to juveniles.
—Joshua Rhett Miller, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Oct. 2025
The case had a historic impact on issues pertaining to racial divisions and domestic violence in American culture.
—Lorenzino Estrada, AZCentral.com, 3 Oct. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pertain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pertain. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.
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pertain
verb
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