# tenure

Pronunciation: US say "TEN-yur" /ˈtɛn.jɚ/; UK say "TEN-yoor" /ˈtɛn.jʊə/; AUS say "TEN-yuh" /ˈten.jə/

## Noun

1. The period of time during which something, such as a position or piece of property, is held or possessed.
   - Simple: The length of time that someone keeps or holds something, like a job or land.
   - _The museum acquired several major works during the director's tenure._
   - _Her tenure on the board coincided with a period of rapid growth._
2. In a college or university, the status of holding a permanent post that carries greater protection against dismissal.
   - Simple: A permanent teaching job at a college that is very hard to lose.
   - _She earned tenure after publishing two well-regarded books on medieval history._
   - _The committee will review his tenure case next spring._
3. The status of holding something, such as a position or property; an incumbency.
   - Simple: The state of holding a job, an office, or a piece of property.
   - _His tenure of the chairmanship was confirmed by a unanimous vote._
   - _The court upheld the company's tenure of the disputed land._
4. A right to hold land under the feudal system, granted by a lord or the crown.
   - Simple: In the Middle Ages, the right to use land that belonged to a king or a lord.
   - _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._

## Verb

5. To grant (a professor or other academic) a permanent position with enhanced job security.
   - Simple: To give a teacher at a college a permanent job that is hard to lose.
   - _The board voted to tenure the young physicist despite budget concerns._
   - _The university tenured three professors in the history department this year._

## Origin

It comes from Middle English tenure, borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French tenure, from Vulgar Latin *tenitura, ultimately from Latin tentus (from teneō, 'to hold') plus the suffix -ura.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tenure (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).