Word.ws English Dictionary

tent

/tɛnt/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

pin pen merger/tɪnt/

tent noun: a pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.

tent: a pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and...
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Noun (1)

tent (plural tents)

  1. A pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.
    • We were camping in a three-man tent.
    • We bought a new tent that can be put up in five seconds, but it took about twenty minutes to take it down and pack it away.
  2. (archaic) The representation of a tent used as a bearing.
  3. (Scotland) A portable pulpit set up outside to accommodate worshippers who cannot fit into a church.
    • A splendid tent was erected on the brae north of the town, and round that the countless congregation assembled.1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
  4. A trouser tent; a piece of fabric, etc. protruding outward like a tent.
    • […] feeling his erection making a tent in his pants.2013, Nathan Lapointe, A Strange New World

Verb (1)

tent (third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented)

  1. (intransitive) To go camping.
    • We’ll be tenting at the campground this weekend.
  2. To prop up aluminum foil in an inverted "V" (reminiscent of a pop-up tent) over food to reduce splatter, before putting it in the oven.
  3. (intransitive) To form into a tent-like shape.
    • The sheet tented over his midsection.
  4. Synonym of fumigate.
    Synonyms:
    fumigate

Verb (2)

tent (third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented)

  1. (Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal) To attend to; to heed.
    • 14th century, anonymous, The Romance of Syr Tryamoure
      He let hur have wemen at wylle,
      To tent hur, and that was skylle,
      And brought hur to bede
  2. (Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal) To guard; to hinder.
    • The poor lass was sitting bemoaning herself - "Were it nae for thy girning face, I would knock the big, winnow the corn, and grun the meal," - "Lowse the cradle-band," said the child, "and tent the neighbours, and I'll work yere work."1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume II, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 167

Noun (2)

tent (plural tents)

  1. (Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal) Attention; regard, care.
    • Lo ! lo ! my frend , take tent to this wommana. 1451, John Lydgate, The Prohemy of a Marriage betwixt and Olde Man and a Yonge Wife, and the Counsail &c.
  2. (archaic) Intention; design.
    • A-pon þe feild his fader went
      And soght abel wit al his tenta. 1300, anonymous author, Cursor Mundi

Noun (3)

tent (plural tents)

  1. A roll of lint or linen, or a conical or cylindrical piece of sponge or other absorbent, used chiefly to dilate a natural canal, to keep open the orifice of a wound, or to absorb discharges.
  2. A probe for searching a wound.

Verb (3)

tent (third-person singular simple present tents, present participle tenting, simple past and past participle tented)

  1. (figuratively, sometimes) To probe or to search with a tent; to keep open with a tent.
    • to tent a wound
    • I'll tent him to the quick.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

Noun (4)

tent (plural tents)

  1. (archaic) A kind of red wine of a deep red color, chiefly from Galicia or Malaga in Spain.
    Synonyms:
    tent wine, tinta

tent meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

tent in Hindi

portable lodge
ख़ैमा xaimā, डेरा ḍerā, तंबू tambū, शामियाना śāmiyānā

tent in Tamil

portable lodge
கூடாரம் kūṭāram

tent in Marathi

portable lodge
तंबू tambū

tent in Urdu

portable lodge
خَیمَہ xaima, ڈیرا ḍerā, شامِیانَہ śāmiyāna, تَن٘بُو tambū
More languagesFewer languages
tent in Bengali
তাম্বু tambu, তাঁবু tãbu
tent in Telugu
గుడారము guḍāramu, టెంటు ṭeṇṭu
tent in Malayalam
കൂടാരം kūṭāraṁ
tent in Kannada
ಬಾಡು bāḍu
tent in Punjabi
تنبو tambū, ਤੰਬੂ tambū, ਡੇਰਾ ḍerā
tent in Gujarati
શામિયાનો śāmiyāno
tent in Odia
ତମ୍ବୁ, ତମ୍ବୁ |, ତମ୍ବୁକୁ
tent in Sanskrit
मलन malana, वेश veśá, मण्डप maṇḍapa
tent in Assamese
তম্বু tombu, তামীঘৰা tamighora, ডেৰা dera, ৰভা robha
tent in Nepali
पाल pāl
tent in Pashto
خېمه xema
tent in Arabic
خَيْمَة ḵayma
tent in Malay
khemah, tenda, ceteri
tent in Indonesian
tenda, kemah
tent in Thai
กระโจม grà-joom, เต็นท์ dtén
tent in Vietnamese
lều
tent in Myanmar
တဲ tai:
Kashmiri
خٟمہٕ khụ̄mụ, تۆمب tomb

Examples of tent in a sentence

  • This house has a swimming pool, a tent, a swing set and a fountain in the garden.
  • I forgot to pack the tent! Well, I guess we’re sleeping under the stars tonight.
  • If you bring your tents, we will all camp on the coast.

All 40 example sentences with tent

Synonyms of tent

Forms of tent

Noun
pluraltents
Verb
third-person singular presenttents
present participletenting
past participletented
pasttented

Plural of tent: tents

Origin of tent

From Middle English tente, borrowed from Old French tente, from Vulgar Latin *tenta (“tent”), from the feminine of Latin tentus, ptp. of tendere (“to stretch, extend”), or contracted from *tendita as an alternate past participle. Displaced native Middle English tild, tilt (“tent, tilt”), from Old English teld (“tent”). Compare Spanish tienda (“store, shop; tent”).

From Middle English tent (“attention”), aphetic variation of attent (“attention”), from Old French atente (“attention, intention”), from Latin attenta, feminine of attentus, past participle of attendere (“to attend”). Compare tend, from an aphetic variation of attend

From Middle English tente (“a probe”), from Middle French tente, deverbal of tenter, from Latin tentāre (“to probe, test”), alteration of temptāre (“to test, probe, tempt”).

Words formed from tent

Phrases with tent

37 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with tent

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tent

What does tent mean?
Tent means a pavilion or portable lodge consisting of skins, canvas, or some strong cloth, stretched and sustained by poles, used for sheltering people from the weather.
What is tent in Hindi?
Tent in Hindi is ख़ैमा (xaimā), डेरा (ḍerā), तंबू (tambū). See Tent meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is tent?
Tent can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tent?
Tent is pronounced /tɛnt/.
What is the plural of tent?
The plural of tent is tents.

Words near tent in the dictionary

  1. tensorizing
  2. tensors
  3. tenstrike
  4. tenstrikes
  5. tensure
  6. tent
  7. tent bed
  8. tent beds
  9. tent camping
  10. tent caterpillar
  11. tent caterpillars

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tent (page history and authors); ಬಾಡು (Kannada) (page history and authors); تنبو (Punjabi) (page history and authors); શામિયાનો (Gujarati) (page history and authors); tent (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); मण्डप (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); पाल (Nepali) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

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Cite this entry: “tent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.