Tenant Meaning
/ˈtɛ.nənt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounOne who holds a lease (a tenancy).
nounOne who has possession of any place.
Sentence Examples
The previous tenant took excellent care of her apartment.
The tenant must pay the landlord the rent at the end of each month.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new ____ moved into the apartment on the first of the month.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new ____ moved into the small apartment early this morning and began to unpack her many suitcases and boxes today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English tenaunt, from Anglo-Norman tenaunt and Old French tenant, present participle of tenir (“to hold”), from Latin tenēre (“hold, keep”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Long even before the last tenant had occupied it, the room had been regarded with fear and aversion, and the end of that last tenant had in no way lightened the gloom that hung about the place."
— a. 1945, Arthur Morrison, The Thing in the Upper Room:
"You are just a tenant here, you say / Living in and out of this life / As cheaply as you can"
— 1982, “The Sitting Room”, in The Sitting Room, performed by Anne Clark:
"the happy tenant of your shade"
— 1647, Abraham Cowley, The Wish:
"But not in silence pass Calypso's isles, / The sister tenants of the middle deep; [...]"
— 1812, Lord Byron, “Canto II”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A Romaunt, London: […] [F]or John Murray, […]; William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin; by Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, stanza XXVIII, page 75:
"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?"
— 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The new ____ moved into the apartment on the first of the month.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The new ____ moved into the small apartment early this morning and began to unpack her many suitcases and boxes today.