Word.ws English Dictionary

tenure

Syllables: ten·ure/ˈtɛn.jʊə/US/ˈtɛn.jɚ/

tenure noun: a status of possessing a thing or an office; an incumbency.

Noun

tenure (countable and uncountable, plural tenures)

  1. A status of possessing a thing or an office; an incumbency.
    • All that seems thine own, / Held by the tenure of his will alone.1781 (date written), William Cowper, “Expostulation”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1782, →OCLC
    • It will be rather entertaining to watch Merriman when he first faces the Transport Select Committee, with his former colleagues likely to be merciless in their questioning. During his tenure, Merriman was pretty sharp, which was no bad thing, and they will make sure he gets a dose of his own...2022 November 16, Christian Wolmar, “Can Merriman use his rail knowledge to make a difference?”, in RAIL, number 970, page 45
    Synonyms:
    incumbency
  2. A period of time during which something is possessed.
  3. A status of having a permanent post with enhanced job security within an academic institution.
  4. A right to hold land under the feudal system.

Verb

tenure (third-person singular simple present tenures, present participle tenuring, simple past and past participle tenured)

  1. (transitive) To grant tenure, the status of having a permanent academic position, to (someone).

tenure meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

tenure in Tamil

உடைமை உடைநிலை, உடைமை உரிமை, உரிமைக் காலம், உரிமைக்கால அளவு, உரிமைக்காலம், நிலப்பிடிமான

tenure in Urdu

علاقہ, کاشت, میعاد, مدت, قبضہ

tenure in Bengali

tenure
মেয়াদ meẏad, ওয়াদা ōẇada

tenure in Telugu

status of possessing a thing or an office
పదవీ కాలం padavī kālaṁ
period of time possessed
పదవీ కాలం padavī kālaṁ
More languagesFewer languages
tenure in Malayalam
പാട്ടവ്യവസ്ഥ, വാരക്രമം, ഉദ്യോഗകാലാവധി
tenure in Kannada
ಕೆಲಸದ ಗಡುವು, ಆಸ್ತಿ, ಹಿಡುವಳಿ, ಅಧಿಕಾರಾವಧಿ

Examples of tenure in a sentence

  • During his tenure, Merriman was pretty sharp, which was no bad thing, and they will make sure he gets a dose of his own medicine.2022 November 16, Christian Wolmar, “Can Merriman use his rail knowledge to make a difference?”, in RAIL, number 970, page 45:
  • Carsley ended his six-game tenure as England's interim manager in the same way he started it, with a comfortable victory over the nation he represented with distinction as a player.2024 November 17, Phil McNulty, “England 5-0 Republic of Ireland”, in BBC Sport:

All 37 example sentences with tenure

Synonyms of tenure

Forms of tenure

Noun
pluraltenures
Verb
third-person singular presenttenures
present participletenuring
past participletenured
pasttenured

Plural of tenure: tenures

Origin of tenure

From Middle English tenure, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French tenure, from Vulgar Latin *tenitura, from *tenitus, from Latin tentus (from teneō) + -ura.

Words formed from tenure

Phrases with tenure

Questions about tenure

What does tenure mean?
Tenure means a status of possessing a thing or an office; an incumbency.
What is tenure in Tamil?
Tenure in Tamil is உடைமை உடைநிலை, உடைமை உரிமை, உரிமைக் காலம். See Tenure meaning in Tamil.
How do you use tenure in a sentence?
During his tenure, Merriman was pretty sharp, which was no bad thing, and they will make sure he gets a dose of his own medicine.
What part of speech is tenure?
Tenure can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce tenure?
Tenure is pronounced /ˈtɛn.jʊə/ (UK).
What is the plural of tenure?
The plural of tenure is tenures.

Words near tenure in the dictionary

  1. tenuosity
  2. tenuous
  3. tenuously
  4. tenuousness
  5. tenurable
  6. tenure
  7. tenure track
  8. tenure-track
  9. tenured
  10. tenureless
  11. tenurelessness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tenure (page history and authors); tenure (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tenure (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ওয়াদা (Bengali) (page history and authors); tenure (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tenure (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tenure.wav.

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