Tentative Definition

tĕntə-tĭv
adjective
Not fully worked out, concluded, or agreed on; provisional.
Tentative plans.
American Heritage
Made, done, proposed, etc. experimentally or provisionally; not definite or final.
Tentative plans, a tentative explanation.
Webster's New World
Indicating timidity, hesitancy, or uncertainty.
A tentative caress.
Webster's New World

Of or pertaining to a trial or trials; essaying; experimental.

Wiktionary

Uncertain; subject to future change.

Wiktionary
noun

A trial; an experiment.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Tentative

Noun

Singular:
tentative
Plural:
tentatives

Origin of Tentative

  • From French tentatif, from Latin tentativus (“trying, testing"), from tento, past participle tentatus (“to try, test"); see tent, tempt.

    From Wiktionary

  • Medieval Latin tentātīvus from Latin tentātus past participle of tentāre to try variant of temptāre

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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