Word of the Day

: January 20, 2017

tenet

noun TEN-ut

What It Means

: a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true; especially : one held in common by members of an organization, movement, or profession

tenet in Context

According to many, the first tenet of real estate is that location is fundamental to determining the value of a property.

"A basic tenet of [Frank Lloyd] Wright's designs was that structures should grow out of the features that are already on the land, that land and buildings should seem an integrated whole." — Linda Charlton, The Daily Commercial (Leesburg, Florida), 20 Dec. 2016

Did You Know?

In Latin, tenet is the third person singular of the verb tenēre ("to hold") and means "he/she/it holds." It is believed to have been borrowed into English around 1600 from Latin writings in which it often introduced the opinions held by a particular church or sect. There are a good many tenēre descendants in English, including some words that end in -tain (abstain, contain, maintain, and sustain, to name a few), and others that begin with ten- (such as tenable, meaning "capable of being held," and tenacious).