From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtenantten‧ant /ˈtenənt/ ●●○ noun [countable] LIVE SOMEWHEREsomeone who lives in a house, room etc and pays rent to the person who owns it → landlord The desk was left by the previous tenant.
Examples from the Corpus
tenant• Tenants are not allowed to keep pets.• Have you found any tenants for your house yet?• Some scepticism has been expressed by tenants as to whether independently judged rents will be significantly lower than those asked by brewers.• Mrs Bujok and her family occupied a house as council tenants.• This also applies to owners taking over responsibility from defaulting tenants, and finance houses taking back property from mortgagors.• Arrears are phenomenal in most authorities, a function of both the impoverishment of tenants and of their rebellion.• Furthermore, the current state of the property market encourages landowners and both existing and prospective tenants to strike complex deals.• The tenants were drawn up in rows on the pier.• Twelve tenants of the Lockwood housing complex are taking part in the lawsuit against their landlord.• When tenants were finally given a vote, they all turned down the idea.From Longman Business Dictionarytenantten‧ant /ˈtenənt/ noun [countable]LAWPROPERTY a person or organization that pays rent in order to live or work in a house, room, office etcThe building is mainly occupied by large commercial tenants. → anchor tenant → life tenant → prime tenant → sitting tenant → statutory tenant → see also subtenantOrigin tenant (1300-1400) Old French present participle of tenir “to hold”, from Latin tenere; → TENACIOUS 