tenanted

Meanings

1. 1adjectivenot comparable

   Currently lived in or used by a person who pays rent to the owner.

   Grammar: Not gradable; can come before a noun or after be: a tenanted house, the flat is tenanted.

   Patterns

   • a tenanted property
   • be tenanted

   The investor bought a tenanted flat so rent would begin immediately.

   Half of the cottages on the estate are tenanted.

   The farm is tenanted and cannot be sold with vacant possession.

2. 2verbtransitiverare

   Past form of tenant: to occupy a property as a renter.

   Grammar: Rare as a verb; takes an object: they tenanted the barn.

   Patterns

   • tenant something

   The family tenanted the old farmhouse for decades.

   The shop had been tenanted by a baker before us.

   A small firm tenanted the whole upper floor.

Common combinations

tenanted property

A tenanted property is sold with the renter in place.

fully tenanted

The block is fully tenanted.

tenanted farm

The tenanted farm has belonged to the family for years.

currently tenanted

The house is currently tenanted until June.

Synonyms and how they differ

let

Let (British) is the usual everyday word meaning rented out, whereas tenanted describes it from the property's current state.

occupied

Occupied only says someone is there; tenanted specifically means a renter lives there.

rented

Rented is broader and informal and does not suggest a formal tenancy as tenanted does.

Opposites

Word family

tenant noun

a person who rents

tenancy noun

the right to occupy a rented place

untenanted adjective

without a tenant

tenantry noun

all the tenants of an estate

Commonly confused: tenanted or tenable?

Practice

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