tenet

American  

[ten-it, tee-nit] / ˈtɛn ɪt, ˈti nɪt /

noun

1. any opinion, principle, doctrine, dogma, etc., especially one held as true by members of a profession, group, or movement.

   Synonyms:

   position, belief

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tenet British  

/ ˈtiːnɪt, ˈtɛnɪt /

noun

1. a belief, opinion, or dogma

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Pronunciation

The word tenet is often mispronounced as , with an extra /n/ sound in the second syllable—exactly like the word tenant (meaning someone who rents and occupies an apartment, office, etc.). It is a mistake made by people across a wide range of educational backgrounds, because it is such a natural one to make: English has thousands of words that end in the unstressed syllable -ant or -ent, such as parent, accident, potent, and relevant. Moreover, the two sounds at the end of all these words—/n/ and /t/—are very easily made together because we pronounce them with the tongue in the same place, touching the upper palate (or roof) of the mouth. The almost identical-sounding and common word tenant makes it all too easy for the extra /n/ to creep into the second syllable of tenet. Another word that is liable to be mispronounced in a similar way, with an extra /n/ in the second syllable, is pundit. No doubt the first /n/ in both tenet and pundit also influences their mispronunciation. And in pundit, the /d/ sound is another one made in the same place as both /n/ and /t/. Talk about piling on!

Etymology

Origin of tenet

First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin: “he holds,” 3rd person singular present indicative of tenēre “to hold”; tenant ( def. )

Example Sentences

But he hadn’t understood how strange it would be, how it would set every nerve in his body on edge and make him question all sorts of basic tenets about how the world worked.

From Literature

The creative team decided early on that a wedding ceremony would perfectly encapsulate “love, joy, connection and family,” that spans across all communities — the exact tenets that the performance centered on, Cuddeford said.

From Los Angeles Times

Objectivity and neutrality are key tenets of analysts’ work, says Brent Taylor, an adviser with consulting firm J.S.

From Barron's

French President Emmanuel Macron has made promoting local companies and loosening EU regulations a core tenet of his second term.

From The Wall Street Journal

“You really want to lower the risk of that. Access to the market is a fundamental tenet of good, clean, fair, efficient markets,” he says.

From Barron's

Related Words

• assumption
• credo
• creed
• doctrine
• dogma
• faith
• precept
• presumption
• teaching