tenter
French, verb/tɑ̃.te/
tenter is spelled T-E-N-T-E-R (6 letters) and appears 49 times per million words in written French, the 1,704th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Tenter is a French verb meaning “to attempt” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Essayer, éprouver ou mettre en usage quelque moyen pour faire réussir quelque chose”.
What does tenter mean in English?
verb
- 1
to attempt
L'ennemi tenta une attaque frontale.
- 2
to tempt
Le serpent tenta Ève.
- 3
to be desirable or interesting to; to be something one feels like doing
Ça te tente de prendre une bière?
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
verb: 1. Essayer, éprouver ou mettre en usage quelque moyen pour faire réussir quelque chose. 2. Éprouver la fidélité à Dieu. 3. Solliciter au péché, au mal. 4. Donner envie, inspirer le désir, l’envie de faire quelque chose.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of tenter
- avoir + past participle infinitive multiword-construction
- tentant gerund participle present
- ayant + past participle gerund multiword-construction participle
- tenté participle past
- tente first-person indicative present
- tentes indicative present second-person
- tentons first-person indicative plural
- tentez indicative plural present
- tentent indicative plural present
- tentais first-person imperfect indicative
- tentait imperfect indicative singular
- tentions first-person imperfect indicative
- tentiez imperfect indicative plural
- tentaient imperfect indicative plural
- tentai first-person historic indicative
- tentas historic indicative past
- tenta historic indicative past
- tentâmes first-person historic indicative
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce tenter?
- /tɑ̃.te/
- \tɑ̃.te\
- [tɑ̃.te]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to tenter
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is tenter in French?
tenter appears 49 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).