tenant

\tə.nɑ̃\

/\tə.nɑ̃\/ adj

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

The verdict

“tenant” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,291. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,291
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui tient.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tenant · tenant · French

tenant · rank #4,291 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,291
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tombée

Nearest frequency peer: tombée (+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 « tenant »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « tenant » 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).

tenant vs tuant
67% similar
tenant vs texan
67% similar
tenant vs tirant
67% similar

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

Key facts for tenant
PropertyValue
Headwordtenant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\tə.nɑ̃\
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,291
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « tenant »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.tenantse 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 « tombée » (#4,292), « symptômes » (#4,289), « touristes » (#4,293). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tenant » est au #4,291. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around tenant (IPA \tə.nɑ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #4,291 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Qui tient.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for tenant, with forms such as "etnant", "teannt", and "tenannt". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tuant", "texan", "tirant", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is tenant, spelled T-E-N-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui tient.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. — La musique sarrasine des chevaliers tenants venait d’achever une de ces longues et bruyantes fanfares qui avaient si souvent troublé le silence de la nuit, […].

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • etnant
  • teannt
  • tenannt
  • tenantt
  • tenatn
  • tennant
  • tennat
  • tneant
  • ttenant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of tenant - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

etnant2teannt2tenannt1tenantt1tenatn2tennant1tennat2tneant2
Edit distance from "tenant"

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 "tenant"?
"tenant" is spelled T-E-N-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \tə.nɑ̃\.
What does "tenant" mean?
As an adjective, "tenant" means: Qui tient.
What words are commonly confused with "tenant"?
"tenant" is commonly confused with "tuant", "texan", "tirant". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "tenant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tenant" is \tə.nɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tenant" come from?
"tenant" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "tenant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

tombée#4,292urbain#4,296belges#4,311poudre#4,269

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

allaient9 variantsappelait9 variantsrecueil9 variantsappelés9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list