tenant
see also: Tenant
Etymology 1

From Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir ("to hold"), from Latin tenēre, present active infinitive of teneō ("hold, keep").

Pronunciation Noun

tenant (plural tenants)

  1. One who holds a lease (a tenancy).
    Synonyms: renter, lessee, rentee
    Hyponyms: subtenant, undertenant, sublessee, underlessee
  2. (by extension) One who has possession of any place.
    Synonyms: dweller, occupant
    • c. 1782-1783, William Cowper, Joy in Martyrdom
      sweet tenants of this grove
    • 1647, Abraham Cowley, The Wish:
      the happy tenant of your shade
    • 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: Printed for John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC ↗, stanza XXVIII, page 75 ↗:
      But not in silence pass Calypso's isles, / The sister tenants of the middle deep; [...]
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XVI, page 26 ↗:
      What words are these have fall’n from me?
      ⁠Can calm despair and wild unrest
      ⁠Be tenants of a single breast,
      Or sorrow such a changeling be?
  3. (computing) Any of a number of customers serviced through the same instance of an application.
    multi-tenant hosting
  4. (chiefly, historic) One who holds a feudal tenure in real property.
  5. (property law, by extension) One who owns real estate other than via allodial title.
Related terms Translations Translations Translations Verb

tenant (tenants, present participle tenanting; simple past and past participle tenanted)

  1. To hold as, or be, a tenant.
    Synonyms: lodge
  2. (transitive) To inhabit.
    • 1814 July 6, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC ↗:
      His thin legs tenanted a pair of gambadoes fastened at the side with rusty clasps.
    • 1835, Charles Lyell, chapter IX, in Principles of Geology […] , 4th edition, volume III, London: John Murray, Book III, page 129 ↗:
      The felling of dense and lofty forests, which covered, even within the records of history, a considerable space on the globe, now tenanted by civilized man, must generally have lessened the amount of vegetable food throughout the space where these woods grew.
Translations Etymology 2

Possibly just a modification of tenet, but note obsolete tenent.

Noun
  1. Misconstruction of tenet

Tenant
Proper noun
  1. Surname.



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