tenable

/\tə.nabl\/ adj

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#41,038

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

4

similar word pairs

tenable is anFrenchadj. It means: Se dit d'un lieu, d’un poste, d’une place où l’on peut se défendre, où l’on peut demeurer sans un trop grand péril. Pronounced \tə.nabl\. Often confused with tenace and tenante.

Key facts for tenable
PropertyValue
Headwordtenable
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\tə.nabl\
Letters7
Frequency rank#41,038
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of tenable in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for tenable is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tə.nabl\. Corpus data places it at rank #41,038 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for tenable, with forms such as "etnable", "teanble", and "tenabble". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "tenace", "tenante", "tenaille", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is tenable, spelled T-E-N-A-B-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Se dit d'un lieu, d’un poste, d’une place où l’on peut se défendre, où l’on peut demeurer sans un trop grand péril.
  2. 2
    Se dit d’un lieu, d’un endroit où l’on ne peut demeurer commodément.
  3. 3
    Se dit d’une fonction que l’on quitte parce qu’on y éprouve des désagréments, parce qu’on y trouve de grandes difficultés.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: etnable,teanble,tenabble,tenabel,tenablle,tenalbe,tenbale,tennable,tneable,ttenable

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for tenable

Misspelling Variants of "tenable"

etnable7teanble7tenabble8tenabel7tenablle8tenalbe7tenbale7tennable8
Misspelling Variants of "tenable"

Frequency rank: #41,038 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tenable"?
"tenable" is spelled T-E-N-A-B-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tə.nabl\.
What does "tenable" mean?
As an adj, "tenable" means: Se dit d'un lieu, d’un poste, d’une place où l’on peut se défendre, où l’on peut demeurer sans un trop grand péril.
What words are commonly confused with "tenable"?
"tenable" is commonly confused with "tenace", "tenante", "tenaille". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tenable"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tenable" is \tə.nabl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tenable" come from?
"tenable" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.