Rental

How to spell rental

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rental

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rental mean?

1. nounAn amount paid for the use of property, or a property or item available to rent.
2. adjectiveRelating to or available through renting rather than ownership.

Rental in a sentence

• noun

  The monthly rental on the flat rose sharply this year.

• adjective

  They collected the rental car from the airport desk.

• noun

  They booked a holiday rental near the coast for two weeks.

• adjective

  The agency manages a large rental portfolio across the city.

Where does rental come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grew from the noun 'rent', which English took in the 1100s from Old French 'rente', meaning a payment or income from property. That French form traces back to Vulgar Latin 'rendita' and ultimately to Latin 'reddere', meaning 'to give back' or 'to render', a compound of 're-' (back) and 'dare' (to give). The idea of paying back what is owed for the use of land or housing gave rise to the modern sense of regular payment for occupancy. The suffix '-al' was added later, around the 1800s, to form both a noun for the thing rented or the amount charged and an adjective describing anything connected with renting. The same 'reddere' root sits behind familiar words like 'render' and 'rendition', which is a useful reminder that the spelling keeps the simple 'rent' intact before its ending.

How the word is built

• rent (from Latin reddita: things rendered or paid)
• -al (noun/adjective suffix)