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PlainSpell

retén

Spanish, noun

retén is spelled R-E-T-É-N (5 letters) and appears about once in every 1 million words in written Spanish, the 41,234th most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Retén is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “stock, reserve” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a second-person singular imperative of retener. Without its accent, reten is a different word: “third-person plural present subjunctive”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Repuesto o prevención que se tiene de una cosa”.

What does retén mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    masculinestock, reserve

  2. 2

    masculinereserve (body of troops kept as reserve)

  3. 3

    masculinesquad, team

  4. 4

    masculinestop, gasket, seal (part to prevent the escape of a fluid or lubrication)

  5. 5

    masculinecheckpoint

verb

  1. 1

    second-person singular imperative of retener

verb

as reten
  1. 1

    third-person plural present subjunctive

  2. 2

    third-person plural imperative

Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Spanish dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Repuesto o prevención que se tiene de una cosa. 2. Tropa que en más o menos número se pone sobre las armas, cuando las circunstancias lo requieren, para reforzar, especialmente de noche, uno o más puestos militares. 3. Puesto policial que se pone sobre la vía pública para vigilar y detectar actividades ilegales. 4. Destacamento de policías al que se le asigna un determinado retén.

The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.

Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of retén

  • retenes plural

Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to retén

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is retén in Spanish?

retén appears about once in every 1 million words in written Spanish.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after retén