tenant

American  

[ten-uhnt] / ˈtɛn ənt /

noun

tenants plural

1. a person or group that rents and occupies land, a house, an office, or the like, from another for a period of time; lessee.

2. Law. a person who holds or possesses for a time lands, tenements, or personalty of another, usually for rent.

3. an occupant or inhabitant of any place.

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verb (used with object)

1. to hold or occupy as a tenant; dwell in; inhabit.

verb (used without object)

1. to dwell or live (usually followed byin ).

tenant British  

/ ˈtɛnənt /

noun

1. a person who holds, occupies, or possesses land or property by any kind of right or title, esp from a landlord under a lease

2. a person who has the use of a house, flat, etc, subject to the payment of rent

3. any holder or occupant

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verb

1. (tr) to hold (land or property) as a tenant

2. rare to dwell

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nontenant
  noun
• nontenantable
  adjective
• tenant-like
  adjective
• tenantable
  adjective
• tenantless
  adjective
• tenantlike
  adjective
• untenantable
  adjective
• untenanted
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tenants
  plural

Etymology

Origin of tenant

1250–1300; Middle English tena ( u ) nt < Anglo-French; Middle French tenant, noun use of present participle of tenir to hold ≪ Latin tenēre. See -ant

Explanation

A tenant is someone who lives in a place owned by someone else, usually paying rent. If you blast your music and let the cat pee in the corner, your landlord will not think that you're a very good tenant. Tenant is often used to mean "renter," but it can mean anyone who has the right to live in a particular place, either because he signed a lease, which is a rental agreement, because he owns the land, or because government gave him a title to it. If you live in a big apartment building, you should be aware of your rights as a tenant, which usually include things like having heat in the winter and proper fire escapes.

Example Sentences

Its last remaining anchor tenant, the Nordstrom, shut its doors last August after 15 years.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 6, 2026

Fire officials said the work of cleaning up the debris and rotting meat at the SoCal cold storage facility is now in the hands of the tenant, Lineage.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 2, 2026

The freeze was approved after a meeting that was attended by a strong showing of tenant groups, the New York Post reported.

From Barron's • Jun. 26, 2026

Under the new rules, the tenant doesn’t have to wait to move in if the premises receive other federal financing and an inspection was conducted within the past year.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 22, 2026

She was the wife of a tenant farmer; the farm, an especially windswept and lonesome one, was halfway between Garden City and Holcomb.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

Related Words

• dweller
• holder
• inhabitant
• occupant
• renter
• resident