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tense

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: tensé

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • enPR: tĕns, IPA(key): /tɛns/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛns

Etymology 1

From Middle English tens, from Old French tens (modern French temps), from Latin tempus. Doublet of tempo and tempus.

Noun

tense (plural tenses)

  2. (linguistics, uncountable) The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
    Dyirbal verbs are not inflected for tense.
  4. (linguistics, grammar, countable) An inflected form of a verb that indicates tense.
    English only has a past tense and a non-past tense; it has no future tense.
    • 1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The Introduction”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] ‎, London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, page 32; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue françoyse, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1972:
      In ſo moche that if any verbe be of the thyꝛde coniugation
      I ſet out all his rotes and tenſes […]
  6. (grammar, countable, proscribed) A grammatical aspect.
  8. (grammar, countable, proscribed) A verb form or construction indicating a combination of tense, aspect, and mood.
    The "simple present" tense in English can have several meanings.
    Habits: I walk my dog every day.
    Stative verbs: You are happy.
    Facts: The Earth revolves around the Sun.
    Etc.
    The Spanish teacher told the student to use the imperfect tense instead of the preterite tense.
Usage notes
  • Some English-language authorities only consider inflected forms of verbs (i.e. the present and past tenses) as tenses, and not periphrastic forms such as the simple future with will.
  • Grammatically tense (the location of an event in time: past, present, future) is often distinguished from aspect (how an event occurs or is viewed by the speaker: finished, ongoing, habitual, etc.). So I am eating and I was eating have different tenses (present and past) but the same aspect (continuous), whereas I was eating and I had eaten have the same tense (past) and different aspects (continuous and perfect). However, it is common in English (especially in language teaching) to refer to aspects as tenses (e.g. the perfect tense, the continuous tense).
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

tense (third-person singular simple present tenses, present participle tensing, simple past and past participle tensed)

  1. (grammar, transitive) To apply a tense to.
    tensing a verb

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus, one form of the past participle of tendō (“stretch”).

Adjective

tense (comparative tenser, superlative tensest)

  1. Showing signs of stress or strain; not relaxed.
    Synonyms: stressed, unrelaxed
    You need to relax, all this overtime and stress is making you tense.
    • 2009 October 21, Richard Steinberg, The 4 Phase Man: A Novel, Bantam, →ISBN:
      "Attention," the tense man called out in Greek. "This is Lieutenant Kazamakis of the Cypriot Provisional Guard. You will immediately surrender all weapons and slowly come down the stairs, hands above your head." No answer.
    • 2018 February 10, Ratna Chandu,, For a Girl in a Star, Sristhi Publishers & Distributors, →ISBN:
      "There's no one in the house," Sahas cut him off quickly. "Actually[,] I have sent them away. I thought that only the two of us should share the special surprise." He gave a tense smile.
  2. Characterized by strain (on the nerves, emotions, etc). (Compare charged.)
    • 2022 June 16, Marc B. DeGeorge, A Call to the Sky, MuseMarc Studio LLC, →ISBN:
      Chi stops, but her eyes continue to pierce right through me and into Karima. A tense moment later, she drops her eyes back to the terminal and scans the data once more. The showdown is over, at least for the moment.
  3. Pulled taut, without any slack.
  4. (phonetics, of a vowel) Produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.
    Antonym: lax
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

tense (third-person singular simple present tenses, present participle tensing, simple past and past participle tensed)

  2. (transitive) To make tense.
  4. (intransitive) To become tense.
    • 1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8:
      The driver and the man shouted angrily at each other and I tensed, ready for violence. But soon everyone in the tap-tap joined in, capping remarks, joking, telling chicken and goat stories.
Derived terms
Translations

Anagrams

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Latin

Participle

tēnse

  1. vocative masculine singular of tēnsus

Spanish

Verb

tense

  1. inflection of tensar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

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