behållande

Behållande is a Swedish noun derived from the verb behålla, meaning to keep or retain. The suffix -ande forms nouns that describe a process or state, so behållande denotes the act of keeping or the condition of being kept. The term is neutral and common in formal and technical contexts.

The concept is broad and appears in several fields. In business and marketing, it is often used in compounds such as kundbehållning, meaning customer retention or the ability to keep customers over time. In natural and built environments, behållande describes the capacity to retain substances or properties, for example vattenbehållning (water retention) in soils or building materials. In information contexts, it can refer to the retention of data or knowledge, i.e., the ability to hold onto information over time or to store it for later use. The word can also appear in administrative or legal discussions to refer to the withholding or keeping of something in a formal sense, though more specific terms are often used in those settings.

In terms of grammar, behållande is typically used as a neutral noun in both singular and plural constructions (singular: behållande; plural: behållanden). It participates in a range of compounds that name particular kinds of retention, allowing it to function across disciplines from marketing and ecology to engineering and information science.

See also examples of specific retention terms such as kundbehållning and vattenbehållning for concrete usages.