Tentative

Definitions: Tentative

Tentative

Adjective

1. Under terms not final or fully worked out or agreed upon; "probationary employees"; "a provisional government"; "just a tentative schedule".

2. Unsettled in mind or opinion; "drew a few tentative conclusions".

Date "tentative" was first used: 1588. (references)

Synonyms: Tentative

Synonyms: doubtful (adj), probationary (adj), provisional (adj), provisionary (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Essay	Adjective: essaying; Verb: experimental; tentative, empirical, probationary.
Experiment	Probative, probatory, probationary, provisional; analytic, docimastic; tentative;unverified, unproven, speculative, untested.
	Noun: experiment; essay; (attempt); analysis; (investigation); screen; trial, tentative method, t_tonnement.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Tentative

English words defined with "tentative": advance, approach ♦ conjecture ♦ doubtful ♦ essay ♦ feeler ♦ hypothecate, hypothesis, hypothesize ♦ insecurely ♦ overture ♦ Peirastic, possibility, probationary, provisional, provisionary ♦ speculate, suppose ♦ tentatively, theorise, theorize, theory. (references)

Specialty definitions using "tentative": blood-bank-booking clerk ♦ CALENDAR-CONTROL CLERK, BLOOD BANK, CUE SELECTOR ♦ experimental rate ♦ on-trial rate ♦ refusal ♦ temporary rate, testamentary account. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Tentative" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses.

French (attempt, bid, endeavor, endeavour, essay, fling, go, offer, shot, try).

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	What kind of man is he? There's grace in the line and color, but it doesn't emerge pure. It pushes at the edge of something still tentative, unresolved - as if somewhere in the man there is still a key unturned. (Seconds; writing credit: Lewis John Carlino; David Ely)
Movie/TV Titles	Tentative d'échec (1980)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	A tentative guide to historical materials on the Spanish borderlands (reference) Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals (reference) The Tentative Pregnancy: Prenatal Diagnosis and the Future of Motherhood (reference) Turbulence: A Tentative Dictionary (NATO Asi Series B, Physics, Vol 341) (reference) Yakov Malkiel: A Tentative Autobibliography (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Kievman: The Temporary & Tentative Extended Piano (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	[Public Health - Canada.] : Tentative map of health regions.Credit: National Library of Medicine.		Commander William A. Glassford, Jr., ship's Commanding Officer and Commander Destroyer Division 32 (seated, center) with Chauncey's Officers and Chief Petty Officers, while she was at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919. Among those seated are (from left to right): Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Thomas C. Macklin -- tentative identification; Lieutenant Allan P. Flagg; Lieutenant Commander Charles H. Ingraham, Executive Officer; Commander Glassford; unidentified Lieutenant; an Ensign (probably either Philip M. Fisher, Jr.; Walter A. Keller; or William R. Schimmeyer); and Gunner Joseph R. Ross -- tentative identification. Note the coarse canvas deck covering, and the supporting framework for the ship's foredeck awning.Credit: NAVY.
	Commander William A. Glassford, Jr., ship's Commanding Officer and Commander Destroyer Division 32 (seated, center) with Chauncey's Officers and Chief Petty Officers, while she was at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919. Among those seated are (from left to right): Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Thomas C. Macklin -- tentative identification; Lieutenant Allan P. Flagg; Lieutenant Commander Charles H. Ingraham, Executive Officer; Commander Glassford; unidentified Lieutenant; an Ensign (probably either Philip M. Fisher, Jr.; Walter A. Keller; or William R. Schimmeyer); and Gunner Joseph R. Ross -- tentative identification.Credit: NAVY.		Commander William A. Glassford, Jr., ship's Commanding Officer and Commander Destroyer Division 32 (seated, center) with Chauncey's officers, while she was at the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1919. Among the others present are: Lieutenant Commander Charles H. Ingraham, Executive Officer (seated, left); Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Thomas C. Macklin (standing, left) -- tentative identification; Lieutenant Allan P. Flagg (standing, 2nd from left); Gunner Joseph R. Ross (standing, right) -- tentative identification. Note that these men are wearing both the old and new style uniforms.Credit: NAVY.
	Soldiers inspecting new trackless tank during demonstration at Fort Myer, Virginia. Tentative plans call for a redesign of the tank's superstructure so that it may be adapted to suitable armament. For further data see caption for pix D-570.Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Business		Together with Singapore's commitment to strengthen its current waste water and air effluent standards, the potential for sales is expected to be high. There are also tentative plans to build a power plant and a desalination facility in the Tuas area to supply potable water. (references)
Civil Liberties	Brunei	In January 2000, the Government responded to objections from parents and religious leaders and set aside tentative plans to require that more Islamic courses be taught in private, non-Islamic parochial schools. (references)
Economic History	Bangladesh	The stock market still has not fully recovered from a severe crash in 1996, although there have been some tentative signs of revival in recent days. (references)
	Kazakhstan	The OSCE noted that, although the October 1999 parliamentary elections fell short of OSCE standards in several areas, they nevertheless marked a tentative step forward in Kazakhstan's democratic development. (references)
Political Rights	Kazakhstan	On October 20, experimental local district akim elections were held, representing the first tentative movement away from Presidential appointment of local district akims. (references)
	Kazakhstan	The OSCE mission sent to observe the elections concluded that the elections were "a tentative step" toward democracy but "fell short of (Kazakhstan's) OSCE commitments." The lower house (Majilis), consisting of 77 members, was elected directly in October 1999. Under amendments to the Constitution passed in 1998, membership in the Majilis elected in 1999 included 10 new seats assigned proportionally to political parties based on the percentage of votes they received nationally (with a minimum vote threshold of 7 percent). (references)
Trade	Argentina	The importer must request from SENASA an import permit (AFIDI) providing the tentative date of arrival of the product. (references)
Women	Afghanistan	Following the Taliban's fall from power and the signing of the Bonn Agreement and easing of restrictions on women, some Afghan women made tentative steps towards resumption of public life. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; as an elderly maiden's hand in marriage, to a rich and handsome suitor; a valuable franchise to a rich corporation, by an alderman; absolution to an impenitent king, by a priest, and so forth. Refusals are graded in a descending scale of finality thus: the refusal absolute, the refusal condition, the refusal tentative and the refusal feminine. The last is called by some casuists the refusal assentive.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
William H. Taft	1909-1913	Root before and after his noteworthy visit to that continent, and I sincerely hope that Congress may be induced to see the wisdom of a tentative effort to establish such lines by the use of mail subsidies.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Tentative" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.83% of the time. "Tentative" is used about 577 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)	99.83%	576	10,970
Noun (proper)	0.17%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	577	N/A

Expressions using "tentative": tentative control regime ♦ tentative method. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "tentative"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		provues (demonstrative, evincive, probationary, probative, test, tester), i ndruajtur (misgiving, reserved, self conscious, shamefaced, sheep-faced, sheepish, shrinking, shy, timid, timorous, tremulant, tremulous), eksperimental (experimental). (various references)

Arabic		‏متردد (ambivalent, chary, double-minded, doubtful, dubious, faint-hearted, faltering, flickering, haunting, hesitant, hesitating, indecisive, infirm, irresolute, remittent, stammerer, timid, uncertain, undecided, unsettled, vacillating, wavering), ‏مؤقت (interim, jury, provisional, provisory, temporal, temporary, transition, transitory), ‏تجريبي (empirical, empiricist). (various references)

Bulgarian		хипотетичен (hypothetic), теория за изпробване, колеблив (backward, doubtful, dubious, faltering, fitful, halting, hesitant, hesitating, infirm, irresolute, labile, pendulous, queasy, rickety, rocky, tardy, vacillating, versatile, wavering, wobbly, yo-yo), временен (ambulatory, fly-by-night, impermanent, interim, interlocutory, makeshift, provisional, provisory, temporary, transient, working), опит (attempt, crack, essay, experience, experiment, go, go off, shot, shy, stab, trial, try, whack, whirl), несигурен (build on sand, chancy, dangerous, disputable, dubious, equivocal, faltering, halting, insecure, irresolute, long, pendulous, precarious, problematic, queasy, risky, rocky, shaky, slippy, suspensive, top heavy, tottery, treacherous, uncertain, uneasy, unreliable, unresolved, unsafe, unsettled, unsound, unsteady, unsure, untrustworthy, variable, versatile, wonky), експериментален (experimental), пробен (experimental, sample, wildcat), проба (assay, attempt, audition, experiment, hallmark, proof, sample, taste, test, trial, try, try on, try out), предварителен (advance, forward, introductory, precursory, preliminary, premonitory, preparative, preparatory), предложение за изпробване, предполагаем (alleged, assumptive, conjectural, presumable, presumptive, probable, putative, reputed, supposed, suppositional, supposititious). (various references)

Chinese		试探性 (Exploratory), 初步 (initial, preliminary). (various references)

Czech		zkusmý, váhavý (faltering, half hearted, hesitant, infirm, irresolute, loath, uncertain), prozatímní (interim, provisional), provizorní (makeshift, provisional, provisory, temporary), předbìžný (anticipatory, precursory, preliminary, preparative, prerequisite), orientaèní, nezávazný (not binding, nude). (various references)

Danish		tentativ diagnose (tentative diagnosis), spotdiagnose (tentative diagnosis), observationsdiagnose (tentative diagnosis), forsøgsvis kontrolstrategi (tentative control regime), foreloebig HF-radiofoni-timeplan (tentative HF broadcasting schedule), diagnostisk forslag (tentative diagnosis). (various references)

Dutch		voorlopig HF-omroeptijdschema (tentative HF broadcasting schedule), rekening houden met fouten (tentative control regime), pollicitatie (pollicitation, tentative offer). (various references)

Farsi		تجربی , عمل تجربی , امتحانی , ازمایشی (Experimental, Pilot). (various references)

Finnish		hapuileva (fumbling, groping, uncertain), alustava (preliminary, provisional). (various references)

French		timide, tentatif, provisoire (temporary), expérimental. (various references)

German		provisorisch (provisional, provisionally, skeleton, temporary). (various references)

Greek		δοκιμαστικόσ (probational, probationary, trial). (various references)

Hebrew		זמ� י (interim, passing, pro tempore, provisional, temporal, temporary), �"סס� י (hesitant, indecisive, indeterminate, irresolute, timid), � סיו� י (empirical, experimental). (various references)

Hungarian		kísérleti (experimental, farout, pilot, probative). (various references)

Italian		provvisorio (Band aid, interim, provisional, temporary), incerto (aleatory, borderline, dim, doubtful, dubious, in question, irresolute, open, questionable, shadowy, touch and go, uncertain, unclear, undecided, unsettled, unsure, vague). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		暫定 . (various references)

Japanese Katakana		しあ�" (consideration, meditation, one's own plan, ponder, private plan, thought), ざ�"てい, か (addition, ancient Chinese weapon, article counter, beautiful, counter for chapters, department, excellent, good, increase, mosquito, passable, provisional, question mark, rack, section, unit of equipment). (various references)

Korean		시험 (exam, Examining, Probing, Proving, test, testing, Tests, tries, try). (various references)

Manx		treealagh (assertive, empiric, empirical), shallidagh (acting, interim, irregular, make do, nisi, provisional, provisory, temporary, transient, transitional). (various references)

Pig Latin		entativetay

Portuguese		experimental (experimental, experimental method, reliability trial). (various references)

Romanian		tentativã (cast, endeavor, endeavour, essay, shy, try, whack), preliminar (initiative, initiatory, introductory, preliminary, preparative), experimental (experimental, experimentally, phenomenal), de probã, de încercare, încercare (attempt, crack, effort, endeavor, endeavour, essay, experiment, go, hardship, proof, shy, suffering, tempting, test, trial, try, visitation, whack). (various references)

Russian		экспериментальный (experimental, pilot-scale), пробный (pilot). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		probni (experimental, probationary, test), privremeni. (various references)

Spanish		tentativo, de tanteo. (various references)

Swedish		trevande (fumble). (various references)

Turkish		tereddüdlü (faltering, halting, hesitant, irresolute, shilly shally, suspensive), tecrübe (experience, experimentation, knowledge), geçici (ad interim, Band aid, casual, curable, deciduous, ephemeral, extrinsic, fading, flying, fortuitous, fugacious, impermanent, interim, interlocutory, jury, makeshift, momentary, palliative, passing, pro forma, provisional, provisory, provo, stopgap, temporal, temporary, transient, transitory, volatile), deneysel (empiric, empirical, experimental), deneme niteliğinde (experimental), deneme (assay, bash, crack, dissertation, effort, essay, experiment, experimentation, fling, go, pilot, practice, probation, proof, proving, shakedown, shot, study, test, testing, touch, trial, try, try out, whack, workout), belli belirsiz (dreaming, dreamy, faint, hardly visible, imperceptible, indistinct, indistinctly, insensible, nebulous, nebulously, shadowy, slight, slightly, soft, vaguely). (various references)

Ukranian		спроба (assay, attempt, essay, go, nisus, offer, overture, shot, slap, try, whack), гіпотетичний (hypothetic, hypothetical), пробний (first, proving, trial), попередній (aforegoing, first, foregoing, head, precedent, preceding, precursive, precursory, preliminary, previous, prior), дослід (experiment). (various references)

Vietnamese		thử, sự toan l� m, sự thử (assay, experiment, experimentalise, experimentalize, experimentation, touch, try, try-out), ướm. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Medieval Latin	700-1500	tentativus. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "tentative": tentatively, tentativeness, tentativenesses, tentatives. (additional references)
	Words ending with "tentative": sustentative. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Tentative" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: entative, tantative, teatative, temtative, tenative, tennative, tentetive, tentitive, textative. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "tentative" (pronounced te"ntutiv or te"nutiv)
7	-e" n t u t i v	argumentative, preventative, representative, unrepresentative.
5	-t u t i v	anticompetitive, competitive, consultative, exploitative, noncompetitive, putative, rep, repetitive, uncompetitive.
4	-u t i v	accusative, acquisitive, additive, affirmative, alliterative, alternative, causative, cognitive, commemorative, communicative, comparative, consecutive, conservative, contemplative, cumulative, curative, decorative, definitive, degenerative, demonstrative, derivative, diminutive, dispositive, duplicative, evocative, executive, expletive, Federative, figurative, fixative, formative, fugitive, generative, hypersensitive, illustrative, imaginative, imperative, indicative, infinitive, informative, initiative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, interpretive, intuitive, laxative, lucrative, narrative, negative, neoconservative, noncumulative, nonexecutive, normative, nutritive, operative, palliative, participative, pejorative, positive, prerogative, preservative, primitive, prohibitive, provocative, punitive, recuperative, relative, remunerative, restorative, secretive, sedative, sensitive, speculative, superlative, talkative, ultraconservative, uncooperative, unimaginative, uninformative, vituperative.
3	-t i v	abortive, accommodative, accumulative, active, adaptive, addictive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, appointive, appreciative, assaultive, assertive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, collaborative, collective, combative, conductive, congestive, connective, constructive, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, deceptive, defective, deliberative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, exhaustive, exploitive, facultative, festive, furtive, hyperactive, imitative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, ineffective, infective, injunctive, innovative, instinctive, instructive, interactive, introspective, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, legislative, locomotive, manipulative, meditative, motive, native, nonautomotive, nonnative, nonproductive, objective, obstructive, octave, overactive, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, predictive, preemptive, presumptive, preventive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, projective, prospective, protective, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, reproductive, respective, restive, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, seductive, selective, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, supportive, unattractive, unproductive, unreceptive, vegetative, vindictive.
5	-n u t i v	alternative, cognitive, definitive, imaginative, infinitive, punitive, unimaginative.
4	-u t i v	accusative, acquisitive, additive, affirmative, alliterative, anticompetitive, argumentative, causative, commemorative, communicative, comparative, competitive, consecutive, conservative, consultative, contemplative, cumulative, curative, decorative, degenerative, demonstrative, derivative, diminutive, dispositive, duplicative, evocative, executive, expletive, exploitative, Federative, figurative, fixative, formative, fugitive, generative, hypersensitive, illustrative, imperative, indicative, informative, initiative, inoperative, inquisitive, insensitive, interpretive, intuitive, laxative, lucrative, narrative, negative, neoconservative, noncompetitive, noncumulative, nonexecutive, normative, nutritive, operative, palliative, participative, pejorative, positive, prerogative, preservative, preventative, primitive, prohibitive, provocative, putative, recuperative, relative, remunerative, rep, repetitive, representative, restorative, secretive, sedative, sensitive, speculative, superlative, talkative, ultraconservative, uncompetitive, uncooperative, uninformative, unrepresentative, vituperative.
3	-t i v	abortive, accommodative, accumulative, active, adaptive, addictive, adjective, administrative, adoptive, affective, appointive, appreciative, assaultive, assertive, attentive, attractive, authoritative, automotive, captive, collaborative, collective, combative, conductive, congestive, connective, constructive, contraceptive, cooperative, corrective, corruptive, counterproductive, creative, deceptive, defective, deliberative, descriptive, destructive, detective, digestive, dilutive, directive, disincentive, disparages, disruptive, dissipative, distinctive, distributive, effective, elective, elucidative, eruptive, exhaustive, exploitive, facultative, festive, furtive, hyperactive, imitative, inactive, inattentive, incentive, ineffective, infective, injunctive, innovative, instinctive, instructive, interactive, introspective, invective, inventive, investigative, irrespective, iterative, legislative, locomotive, manipulative, meditative, motive, native, nonautomotive, nonnative, nonproductive, objective, obstructive, octave, overactive, perceptive, perspective, photoconductive, plaintive, predictive, preemptive, presumptive, preventive, proactive, probative, productive, prognosticative, projective, prospective, protective, qualitative, quantitative, radioactive, reactive, receptive, reconstructive, redemptive, redistributive, reflective, refractive, regulative, rehabilitative, reproductive, respective, restive, restrictive, retroactive, retrospective, seductive, selective, stimulative, subjective, substantive, suggestive, superconductive, supportive, unattractive, unproductive, unreceptive, vegetative, vindictive.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: attentive.
	Words within the letters "a-e-e-i-n-t-t-t-v"
	-2 letters: naivete, navette, vittate.
	-3 letters: attent, native, tattie, teniae, tentie, vittae.
	-4 letters: eaten, enate, entia, event, evite, naevi, naive, nieve, taint, tenet, tenia, tinea, titan, veena, venae, vitae, vitta.
	-5 letters: ante, anti, eave, etna, even, nave, neat, nett, neve, nevi, nite, tain, tate, teat, teen, tent, tine, tint, vain, vane, vein, vena, vent, vina, vine, vita.
	Words containing the letters "a-e-e-i-n-t-t-t-v"
	+1 letter: tentatives.
	+2 letters: attentively, inattentive, tentatively.
	+3 letters: sustentative, transvestite.
	+4 letters: attentiveness, inattentively, overattention, tentativeness, transvestites.
	+5 letters: attractiveness, interpretative, overattentions.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.