tenet

[ ten-it; British also tee-nit ]
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noun
  1. any opinion, principle, doctrine, dogma, etc., especially one held as true by members of a profession, group, or movement.

Origin of tenet

1
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin: “he holds,” 3rd person singular present indicative of tenēre “to hold”; cf. tenant

pronunciation note For tenet

The word tenet is often mispronounced as [ten-uhnt], /ˈtɛn ənt/, with an extra /n/ sound in the second syllable—exactly like the word tenant (meaning someone who rents and occupies an apartment, office, etc.). It is a mistake made by people across a wide range of educational backgrounds, because it is such a natural one to make: English has thousands of words that end in the unstressed syllable -ant or -ent, such as parent, accident, potent, and relevant. Moreover, the two sounds at the end of all these words—/n/ and /t/—are very easily made together because we pronounce them with the tongue in the same place, touching the upper palate (or roof) of the mouth. The almost identical-sounding and common word tenant makes it all too easy for the extra /n/ to creep into the second syllable of tenet.
Another word that is liable to be mispronounced in a similar way, with an extra /n/ in the second syllable, is pundit. No doubt the first /n/ in both tenet and pundit also influences their mispronunciation. And in pundit, the /d/ sound is another one made in the same place as both /n/ and /t/. Talk about piling on!

Other words for tenet

Words that may be confused with tenet

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How to use tenet in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for tenet

tenet

/ (ˈtɛnɪt, ˈtiːnɪt) /


noun
  1. a belief, opinion, or dogma

Origin of tenet

1
C17: from Latin, literally: he (it) holds, from tenēre to hold

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012