tenace

\tə.nas\

/\tə.nas\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“tenace” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #19,698. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#19,698
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est adhérent ; qui tient fortement à quelque chose.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tenace · tenace · French

tenace · rank #19,698 · 8 variants · 19 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #19,698
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH Tapisserie

Nearest frequency peer: Tapisserie (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « tenace »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « tenace » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

tenace vs tente
67% similar
tenace vs trace
67% similar
tenace vs tende
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for tenace
PropertyValue
Headwordtenace
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\tə.nas\
Letters6
Frequency rank#19,698
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « tenace »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).tenacese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Tapisserie » (#19,697), « TM » (#19,699), « tapez » (#19,696). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tenace » est au #19,698. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around tenace (IPA \tə.nas\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #19,698 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for tenace, with forms such as "etnace", "teance", and "tenacce". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "tente", "trace", "tende", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is tenace, spelled T-E-N-A-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est adhérent ; qui tient fortement à quelque chose.
  2. 2
    Qualifie les plantes et des parties de plantes qui s’attachent, s’accrochent à ce qui les touche, telles que les tiges et les semences du grateron.
  3. 3
    Dont les parties tiennent fortement ensemble, qui peut soutenir une traction, une pression considérable sans s’allonger, sans se rompre.
  4. 4
    Dont on ne peut pas se débarrasser ; qui persiste.
  5. 5
    Qualifie une personne dont on ne peut se défaire, qu’on ne peut écarter.
  6. 6
    Qui est attaché fortement à ses idées, à ses projets, à ses prétentions.
  7. 7
    Qui ne donne qu’avec peine ; avare.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how tenace appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le suc d’oignons de lis étoit tenace, gluant; il fallut pour en avoir un peu, le ramasser avec un couteau : il étoit couleur de café au lait; […].
  2. L’intrépide lion dans un piège surpris S’irrite du danger, et de sa dent tenace Ronge, en grondant, la toile où lui-même s’enlace

This word in other languages

tenacious(English)acérrimo(Español)tenaz(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • etnace
  • teance
  • tenacce
  • tenaec
  • tencae
  • tennace
  • tneace
  • ttenace

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tenace - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

etnace2teance2tenacce1tenaec2tencae2tennace1tneace2ttenace1
Edit distance from "tenace"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tenace"?
"tenace" is spelled T-E-N-A-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tə.nas\.
What does "tenace" mean?
As an adjective, "tenace" means: Qui est adhérent ; qui tient fortement à quelque chose.
What words are commonly confused with "tenace"?
"tenace" is commonly confused with "tente", "trace", "tende". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tenace"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tenace" is \tə.nas\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tenace" come from?
"tenace" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tenace", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

strike#19,691tribut#19,705spring#19,689valais#19,707

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

torts8 variantsVuitton8 variantsaliens8 variantsanodin8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list