Tentative

How to spell tentative

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tentative

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tentative mean?

1. adjectiveNot yet fixed or final; provisional and open to change.
2. adjectiveShowing caution or lack of confidence in manner or action.

Tentative in a sentence

• We have a tentative date for the meeting, but it may still move.

• She gave a tentative knock on the manager's door before entering.

• The budget figures are tentative until the board approves them.

• His tentative first steps after surgery worried the physiotherapist.

Where does tentative come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb tentare (also spelled temptare), which literally meant 'to try', 'to test', or 'to attempt'. From that verb medieval Latin formed tentativus, describing something done by way of trial rather than as a firm commitment. English took the word up in the early 1600s in scholarly contexts, where a tentative position was one offered for testing rather than asserted as settled. The same Latin root for trying and testing also gives us the everyday words 'tempt' and 'attempt', which is a useful reminder that the spelling has a single hard 't' in the middle, not the doubled letters of 'tentative' that some writers fear. The modern sense, meaning unsure, provisional, or done with hesitation, grew naturally out of that original idea of a cautious trial.

How the word is built

• tent- (from Latin tentare/temptare: to try, attempt)
• -ative (adjective suffix)