tenure

Pluraltenures

Formstenures, tenuring, tenured

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The period of time during which something, such as a position or piece of property, is held or possessed.

   The museum acquired several major works during the director's tenure.

   Her tenure on the board coincided with a period of rapid growth.

   Similarterm, incumbency, stint

2. 2
   noununcountable

   In a college or university, the status of holding a permanent post that carries greater protection against dismissal.

   She earned tenure after publishing two well-regarded books on medieval history.

   The committee will review his tenure case next spring.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The status of holding something, such as a position or property; an incumbency.

   His tenure of the chairmanship was confirmed by a unanimous vote.

   The court upheld the company's tenure of the disputed land.

   Similarincumbency, occupancy, possession

   Note

   Holding is at the root. The word comes through Anglo-Norman and Old French from Latin teneō, "to hold." Tenure takes of before what is held, as when Cowper writes of things "held by the tenure of his will alone." It takes as before the role: a six-game tenure as interim manager. When the stretch of time matters more than the holding itself, the word has moved into the "period" meaning.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A right to hold land under the feudal system, granted by a lord or the crown.

   Under military tenure, a vassal owed his lord forty days of armed service each year.

   The abbey held its estates by tenure from the crown.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To grant (a professor or other academic) a permanent position with enhanced job security.

   The board voted to tenure the young physicist despite budget concerns.

   The university tenured three professors in the history department this year.

   Note

   A verb made from the academic noun, regular in every form: tenures, tenuring, tenured. In practice the past participle does most of the work. It appears either in the passive (she was tenured last year) or as an adjective before a noun (a tenured professor, tenured faculty). The active construction, as when a board votes to tenure someone, is the less common one.

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