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:
“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
The deeply feeling kid is a tentpole of Dr. Becky’s brand.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
Denis stepped down from the bench; tied insecurely and crookedly to the tentpole, the Union Jack hung limp on the windless air.
From Crome Yellow by Huxley, Aldous
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
The latter will serve as one of the spiritual tentpoles of the space.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 7, 2026
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
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.
