Tenure

//ˈtɛn.jʊə// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A status of possessing a thing or an office; an incumbency. countable, uncountable

    "All that seems thine own, / Held by the tenure of his will alone."

  2. 2
    the right to hold property; part of an ancient hierarchical system of holding lands wordnet
  3. 3
    A period of time during which something is possessed. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the term during which some position is held wordnet
  5. 5
    A status of having a permanent post with enhanced job security within an academic institution. countable, uncountable
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  1. 6
    A right to hold land under the feudal system. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To grant tenure, the status of having a permanent academic position, to (someone). transitive
  2. 2
    give life-time employment to wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
incumbencyincumbencyadverse possessionalodiumappointmentberth

Example

More examples

"My brother just received tenure at the university where he teaches."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

land tenuretenure-trackfeudal systemjob securityprofessor attainmentprofessor securityprofessors jobteachers securityuniversity facultyuniversity term

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.