Retain

How to spell retain

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce retain

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does retain mean?

1. verbTo continue to keep or hold possession of something.
2. verbTo secure the services of a lawyer or professional by paying an advance fee.

Retain in a sentence

• The company hopes to retain its most experienced staff through the merger.

• She decided to retain a solicitor before signing the property deal.

• These batteries retain their charge for several months in storage.

• The firm chose to retain outside counsel for the complex dispute.

Where does retain come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb retinere, which combined re- meaning 'back' with tenere meaning 'to hold', so its literal sense was 'to hold back' or 'to keep in place'. It travelled into English in the late 1300s through the Old French retenir, carrying meanings of keeping possession of something and holding people or things in service. The same tenere root sits inside a whole family of familiar words such as 'detain', 'contain', 'maintain' and 'tenant', all of which involve some idea of holding. The shift from Latin -tinere to the English -tain spelling came through that French route, which is why the word ends in -ain rather than mirroring the Latin form. Knowing the 'hold back' core meaning helps fix the sense: when you retain something, you keep hold of it.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• tain (from Latin tenere: to hold)