tent
/tɛnt/noun, verb
tent is spelled T-E-N-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “tent vs tint” about 30 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, tent means “A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of tent is tents.
How many letters and syllables are in tent?
| Letters | 4: T-E-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is tent?
Tent appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce tent?
- /tɛnt/
- /tɪnt/
Tent has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-tent.ogg, En-us-inlandnorth-tent.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with tent
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with tent?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as tent.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: nett.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of tent
- tents plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- tenting participle, present
- tented participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does tent mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.
We were camping in a three-man tent.
- 2
archaicThe representation of a tent used as a bearing.
- 3
ScotlandA portable pulpit set up outside to accommodate worshippers who cannot fit into a church.
- 4
A trouser tent; a piece of fabric, etc. protruding outward like a tent.
- 5
A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.
- 6
A probe for searching a wound.
- 7
ScotlandUKarchaicAttention; regard, care.
- 8
archaicIntention; design.
- 9
archaicA kind of red wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain.
verb
- 1
To go camping.
We’ll be tenting at the campground this weekend.
- 2
To prop up aluminum foil in an inverted "V" (reminiscent of a pop-up tent) over food to reduce splatter, before putting it in the oven.
- 3
To form into a tent-like shape.
The sheet tented over his midsection.
- 4
Synonym of fumigate.
- 5
To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.
to tent a wound
- 6
ScotlandUKarchaicTo attend to; to heed.
14th century, anonymous, The Romance of Syr Tryamoure He let hur have wemen at wylle, To tent hur, and that was skylle, And brought hur to bede
- 7
ScotlandUKarchaicTo guard; to hinder.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Tent in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tente, guitoune |
| German | Zelt |
| Portuguese | tenda, barraca , acampar |
| Spanish | tienda, toldo, carpa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does tent come from?
From Middle English tente, borrowed from Old French tente, from Vulgar Latin *tenta (“tent”), from the feminine of Latin tentus, ptp. of tendere (“to stretch, extend”), or contracted from *tendita as an alternate past participle. Displaced native Middle English tild, tilt (“tent, tilt”), from Old English teld (“tent”). Compare Spanish tienda (“store, shop; tent”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).