retenue
French, noun/ʁə.t(ə).ny/
retenue is spelled R-E-T-E-N-U-E (7 letters) and appears 13 times per million words in written French, the 5,439th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Retenue is a French feminine noun meaning “restraint” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a feminine singular of retenu. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Action de retenir”.
What does retenue mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininerestraint
- 2
femininededuction
- 3
femininereservoir
- 4
femininedetention
verb
- 1
femininefeminine singular of retenu
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Action de retenir. 2. Ce qu’on retient, ce qui est retenu, prélèvement sur une somme, un montant à payer. 3. Chiffre, nombre que l’on retient entre deux étapes d’un calcul (addition, soustraction, multiplication, division…). 4. Privation de sortie, infligée à un écolier comme punition de quelque faute.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of retenue
- retenues plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce retenue?
- /ʁə.t(ə).ny/
- \ʁə.tə.ny\
- [ʁətəny]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to retenue
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is retenue in French?
retenue appears 13 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).