tenant

1 of 2

noun

ten·​ant ˈte-nənt 

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

: occupant, dweller

tenantless

ˈte-nənt-ləs 

adjective

tenant

2 of 2

verb

tenanted; tenanting; tenants

transitive verb

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

tenantable

ˈte-nən-tə-bəl 

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.

Synonyms

Noun

• boarder
• lessee
• lodger
• renter
• roomer

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

Serendipitously, Owsley would appear one day at the door, to chat up a female tenant who was renting a room from Scully. —John Semley, Rolling Stone, 19 Apr. 2025

Also in August, a former Independence Towers tenant and a former tenant of the nearby Stonybrook East apartment complex sued FTW and its partners, citing poor conditions and retaliation. —Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 18 Apr. 2025

Verb

Malkin considers The Bicester Collection a platform for full-price customer acquisition, even though it’s tenanted by outlets. —David Moin, WWD, 16 Oct. 2024

The spike mirrors a wider uptick in rental property sales across the U.K., where 18% of all nationwide listings were previously tenanted, according to Rightmove. —Karen Gilchrist, CNBC, 5 Sep. 2024

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

Phrases Containing tenant

• co-tenant
• se tenant
• sitting tenant
• tenant farmer

Rhymes for tenant

• pennant
• cotenant
• lieutenant
• subtenant

Kids Definition

tenant

1 of 2 noun

ten·​ant ˈten-ənt 

1

: one who occupies property of another especially for rent

2

: occupant

tenant

2 of 2 verb

: to hold or occupy as a tenant : inhabit

Legal Definition

tenant

noun

ten·​ant ˈte-nənt 

: 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