Word.ws English Dictionary

tentpole

US/ˈtɛntˌpoʊl/

tentpole noun: one of the poles used to hold up a tent.

Noun

tentpole (plural tentpoles)

  1. One of the poles used to hold up a tent.
  2. (US, attributive, figuratively, usually) A large-scale entertainment production that is a major source of revenue for its studio, television network, or investors.
    • His [James Rolfe's] reasoning dances around the simple fact that has set this innocuous-seeming movie apart from its fellow blockbusters this summer—that it’s a tentpole genre film starring women.2016 May 18, David Sims, “The Outcry Against the All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’ Remake Gets Louder”, in The Atlantic

Verb

tentpole (third-person singular simple present tentpoles, present participle tentpoling, simple past and past participle tentpoled)

  1. To schedule a popular programme between two newer or less popular ones in the hope that viewers will watch them.

tentpole meaning in Arabic and Indonesian

tentpole in Arabic

pole used to hold up a tent
بِوَان biwān, عَمُود البَيْت ʕamūd al-bayt

tentpole in Indonesian

pole used to hold up a tent
tiang kemah, batang tenda, tongkat tenda

Forms of tentpole

Noun
pluraltentpoles
alternative formtent pole
Verb
third-person singular presenttentpoles
present participletentpoling
past participletentpoled
pasttentpoled

Origin of tentpole

From tent + pole.

Words formed from tentpole

Phrases with tentpole

Questions about tentpole

What does tentpole mean?
Tentpole means one of the poles used to hold up a tent.
What is tentpole in Arabic?
Tentpole in Arabic is بِوَان (biwān), عَمُود البَيْت (ʕamūd al-bayt). See Tentpole meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is tentpole?
Tentpole can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tentpole?
Tentpole is pronounced /ˈtɛntˌpoʊl/ (US).
What is the plural of tentpole?
The plural of tentpole is tentpoles.

Words near tentpole in the dictionary

  1. tentorium cerebelli
  2. tentoriums
  3. tentory
  4. tentoxin
  5. tentoxins
  6. tentpole
  7. tentpole film
  8. tentpole films
  9. tentpole movie
  10. tentpole movies
  11. tentpoled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tentpole (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.

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