overwordExplorer
FRENCH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

retenir.

to retain, hold

7 characters3 syllables approx.Français language

Meaning & usage

verb/ʁə.t(ə).niʁ/
  1. to retain, hold to hold back, rein in

    transitive
  2. to retain, hold to keep, detain, hold up

    transitive
  3. to remember

    transitive
  4. to accept (que that)

    intransitive · transitive
  5. to uphold

    transitive
  6. to restrain oneself, hold back

    reflexive
    Je n'ai pas pu me retenir, je n'ai pas pu m'en empêcher.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle French retenir, from Old French retenir, from Vulgar Latin *retenīre, from Latin retinēre, from re- + teneō (“to hold”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.