tentpole
Americannoun
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one of the poles used to hold up a tent.
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something which is central and supports a project, idea, campaign, company, etc.
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a piece of media, particularly a big-budget movie, intended by a studio to make enough profit to finance less successful projects.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
An entrepreneur featured on Going Public —the investor show promoted by Elon Musk’s X last year as a tentpole of its original-content strategy—has been indicted on allegations of fraud connected to his real estate business.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
That has forced networks to re-evaluate these onetime tentpole franchises.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
The deeply feeling kid is a tentpole of Dr. Becky’s brand.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
It is the tentpole that carries the sport’s postseason and thus deserves the sport’s final game.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026
Go to the rear tentpole and stand on your head.
From Dick Prescott's Second Year at West Point Finding the Glory of the Soldier's Life by Hancock, H. Irving (Harrie Irving)
So when she is — and not in forgettable tentpoles like “Eternals” — it’s worth paying attention.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
As Fennell trots along Brontë’s tentpoles, she dusts the narrative between these plot points with sensational set pieces and eye-popping costumes.
From Salon ● Feb. 14, 2026
These events will remain the game's "tentpoles", to use the latest corporate vernacular.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2025
His 17-year tenure also saw the addition of four franchises, labor peace and a variety of structural changes that have since emerged as tentpoles of the sport.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2025
Camp was pitched upon a knoll with plenty of pine trees so standing that natural tentpoles were readymade.
From Girl Scouts in the Rockies by Roy, Lillian Elizabeth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
