tenir le coup
\tə.niʁ lə ku\
The verdict
“tenir le coup” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Résister aux coups de vent et de mer.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tenir le coup |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \tə.niʁ lə ku\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tenir le coup” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for tenir le coup is 13 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tə.niʁ lə ku\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for tenir le coup, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is tenir le coup, spelled T-E-N-I-R- -L-E- -C-O-U-P.
Definition
- 1Résister aux coups de vent et de mer.
- 2Supporter avec fermeté, voire surmonter, quelque chose de long, pénible, désagréable ou douloureux.
This word in other languages
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 le coup”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is T-E-N-I-R- -L-E- -C-O-U-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \tə.niʁ lə ku\ (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.