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Pertain comes to English via Anglo-French from the Latin verb pertinēre, meaning "to reach to" or "to belong." Pertinēre, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix per- (meaning "through") and tenēre ("to hold"). Tenēre is a popular root in English words and often manifests with the -tain spelling that can be seen in pertain. Other descendants include abstain, contain, detain, maintain, obtain, retain, and sustain, to name a few of the more common ones. Not every -tain word has tenēre in its ancestry, though. Ascertain, attain, and certain are certainly exceptions. And a few tenēre words don't follow the usual pattern: tenacious and tenure are two.
Examples of pertain in a Sentence
Nick Mordowanec, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 June 2025
The data pertains to Medicaid recipients in California, Illinois, Washington and Washington, D.C., according to the AP report.
—Jude Joffe-Block, NPR, 24 June 2025
If traveling abroad, the State Department advised reviewing its website for alerts pertaining to the specific destination being visited.
—Greg Wehner, FOXNews.com, 23 June 2025
Kelson’s lesson not only pertains to Spike being able to let go of his mother, who Kelson diagnoses with terminal cancer, but also to let go of traditions and patterns of thinking that no longer serve the future.
—Richard Newby, HollywoodReporter, 23 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pertain.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pertain. Accessed 29 Jun. 2025.
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pertain
verb
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