tenure

\tə.nyʁ\

/\tə.nyʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“tenure” is uncommon French (frequency #81,628 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#81,628
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Terre concédée à une personne non noble par un seigneur, en retenant la propriété pour n’accorder que la jouissance précaire au concessionnaire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tenure · tenure · French

tenure · rank #81,628 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #81,628
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tendancieuse

Nearest frequency peer: tendancieuse (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « tenure »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « tenure » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tenure
PropertyValue
Headwordtenure
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tə.nyʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#81,628
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tenure » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).tenuretombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « tendancieuse » (#81,627), « terminèrent » (#81,629), « tena » (#81,626). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tenure » est au #81,628. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tenure is uncommon French at frequency #81,628 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \tə.nyʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

tenure doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is tenure, spelled T-E-N-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Terre concédée à une personne non noble par un seigneur, en retenant la propriété pour n’accorder que la jouissance précaire au concessionnaire.
  2. 2
    Mode de possession d’une terre.
  3. 3
    Mouvance, dépendance d’un fief.
  4. 4
    Exploitation agricole en fermage.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les tenures sont des terres accordées par le seigneur aux paysans. En échange de leurs terres, les paysans fournissent le cens.
  2. Le seigneur foncier morcela son domaine, concéda en tenure chacune de ses parcelles.

Synonyms

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); 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 "tenure"?
"tenure" is spelled T-E-N-U-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tə.nyʁ\.
What does "tenure" mean?
As a noun, "tenure" means: Terre concédée à une personne non noble par un seigneur, en retenant la propriété pour n’accorder que la jouissance précaire au concessionnaire.
How do you pronounce "tenure"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tenure" is \tə.nyʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tenure" come from?
"tenure" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "tenure", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list