tenir en laisse
\tə.ni.ʁ‿ɑ̃n lɛs\
The verdict
“tenir en laisse” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Conduire, attaché à une laisse, en parlant d'un chien.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tenir en laisse |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \tə.ni.ʁ‿ɑ̃n lɛs\ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tenir en laisse” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
tenir en laisse is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \tə.ni.ʁ‿ɑ̃n lɛs\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
tenir en laisse has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is tenir en laisse, spelled T-E-N-I-R- -E-N- -L-A-I-S-S-E.
Definition
- 1Conduire, attaché à une laisse, en parlant d'un chien.
- 2Mener, en parlant d'un humain ; lui faire faire tout ce qu’on veut ; le gouverner comme un enfant.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tenir en laisse”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is T-E-N-I-R- -E-N- -L-A-I-S-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \tə.ni.ʁ‿ɑ̃n lɛs\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.