tenant Hear it!

tenant Definition

ten·ant (ten′ənt)

noun

  1. a person who pays rent to occupy or use land, a building, etc.
  2. an occupant of or dweller in a specified place
  3. a person who possesses lands, etc. by any kind of title

Etymology: ME tenaunt < OFr tenant, orig. prp. of tenir, to hold < L tenere, to hold < IE base *ten-, to pull, stretch > thin

transitive verb

to hold as a tenant; occupy

tenant Related Forms
ten′·ant·able adjective ten′·ant·less adjective
tenant Synonyms

tenant

n.

renter, lessee, householder, rent payer, dweller, inhabitant, occupant, resident, roomer, lodger, boarder, freeholder, holder, possessor, leaseholder, tenant farmer; see also resident.

Antonyms owner*, proprietor, landlord.

tenant Law Definition

n

  1. The possessor or occupier of land by virtue of any kind of title or right. See tenancy.
  2. One who pays rent in order to temporarily occupy or possess someone else’s land under the terms of a lease or similar document. See lessee.
life tenant
a person with the right to use property for life, with no ability to bequeath same to own heirs.
tenant Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • evict: Of course all temporarily evicted tenants would have the promise of being restored to better rooms at the same rent.
  • assure: An assured tenant pays an assured rent, set every year by CDS.

Converse of subject

  • occupy: He discovered that her English property, Jeffs, was occupied by longstanding tenants who paid an almost negligible rent.

Adjective modifier

  • prospective: None of the prospective tenants were therefore able to assess how easy or difficult it would be to afford a housing association rent.
  • hypothetical: The hypothetical tenant in an ability to pay scenario is likely to have no profit motive.
  • assured: You have a succession right whether you are a secure tenant or an assured tenant.
  • joint: Whether you are joint tenants or have separate tenancies, your benefit may go down.
  • outgoing: The outgoing tenant will want his name removed to ensure that he is no longer liable for the rent!
  • occupying: In his opinion the best plan would be to treat as owner the person immediately above the occupying tenant.

Modifies a noun

  • farmer: The National Trust is to ban its 2,000 tenant farmers from growing GM crops on its land.
  • participation: Lunchtime I went to the housing office to talk to Pat ( tenant participation officer ) about our visit on Friday to Derby.
  • involvement: There's a real opportunity for tenant involvement here but how can we help people get more out of where they live?

Noun used with modifier

  • shorthold: If you are an assured or a shorthold tenant, your landlord cannot evict without a Court Order.
  • council: Help from Right to Buy Scheme The Right to Buy scheme has helped almost 2 million council tenants in England buy their own home.
  • anchor: They are the anchor tenants and account for 35 per cent of the retail space.
  • housing: Should social housing tenants be encouraged to become home owners?
  • association: This will increase the security of the nearly 1.5 million housing association tenant households.
  • villein: Its main task, however, was recording the surrenders and admittances of villein tenants.

Preposition: of

  • manor: Rentals and surveys also name the tenants of the manor and describe their individual holdings.
  • landlord: You can also apply to exchange homes with a tenant of another social landlord.