tentpole
Americannoun
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tentpoles
plural
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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:
Recently, the company has been focusing on its major tentpole franchises.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
“As the business boom accelerated,” Mr. Schatz writes, “the studios’ tentpole mentality intensified, and the indie movement spread to the mainstream.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Importantly, the quarter appears to be benefiting from multiple films working simultaneously across genres and demographics, creating a healthier recovery dynamic than one driven by a small number of tentpole releases.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
That has forced networks to re-evaluate these onetime tentpole franchises.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 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 H. Irving (Harrie Irving) Hancock
These events will remain the game's "tentpoles", to use the latest corporate vernacular.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2025
For Germany, Europe’s longtime engine of growth, global shifts have dislodged the tentpoles of its economic success: cheap gas from Russia, booming export markets in China and the U.S. defense umbrella.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
The Boravia-Jarhanpur conflict is one of the movie’s narrative tentpoles, and Gunn returns to it later in the film with startling impact.
From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2025
“Last year, we didn’t have those big tentpoles in April and early May that usually start the season. Because we’ve had that, people are in the moviegoing mood.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2025
Then said the Caliph, "Of what part of this camp art thou?"; and she replied, "Of its middle in dwelling and of its highest in tentpoles."
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 07 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
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.
