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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
Chris Sommerfeldt, New York Daily News, 2 Jan. 2026
As one of his opening acts in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swiftly reversed every executive order his predecessor, Eric Adams, signed after his indictment on federal corruption charges, including two that pertained to Israel.
—Ken Alltucker, USA Today, 2 Jan. 2026
In a letter to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon asked for records pertaining to this method of voter registration for elections held in the past 22 months, including the 2024 elections.
—Jack Birle, The Washington Examiner, 2 Jan. 2026
Time and again, Powell insisted that base rate decisions are made exclusively and entirely on data pertaining to the economy.
—Eleanor Pringle, Fortune, 29 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pertain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pertain. Accessed 7 Jan. 2026.
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pertain
verb
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