Meanings
plural tenents
- obsoleteA tenet.
I answer, if Queene Elizabeth according to the Answerers Tenent and Conſcience, did well to perſecute according to her conſcience, King Iames did not ill in perſecuting according to his[…]
1644, Roger Williams, chapter LXVI, in The Blovdy Tenent, of Perſecution […] , →ISBN, page 972 more examples
Beautie alone is a ſoveraigne remedy againſt feare,griefe,and all melancholy fits; a charm,as Peter de la Seine and many other writers affirme,a banquet it ſelfe;he gives inſtance in diſcontented Menelaus that was ſo often freed by Helenas faire face: and ʰTully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chiefe patron of this Tenent.
1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection iv, page 298Ignorant and ſuperſtitious wretches meaſure the actions of letterd and philoſophical men by the tattle of their nurſes or illiterate parents and companions, or by the faſhion of the country : and people of differing religions judge and condemn each other by their own tenents ; when both of them cannot be in the right, and it is well if either of them are.
1722, William Wollaston, “Sect. V. Truths relating to the Deity. Of his exiſtence, perfection, providence, &c.”, in The Religion of Nature Delineated, page 81
Origin
- Latintenent“they hold”
- Englishtenent
From Latin tenent (“they hold”). Compare tenet.
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
tenent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tenent
“tenent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tenent. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tenent,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tenent.
Source: tenent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.