tense
The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
Noun 4 meanings
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.”
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.”
A grammatical aspect.
A verb form or construction indicating a combination of tense, aspect, and mood.
“The "simple present" tense in English can have several meanings.”
Verb 3 meanings
To apply a tense to.
“tensing a verb”
To make tense.
To become tense.
Adjective 4 meanings
Showing signs of stress or strain; not relaxed.
“You need to relax, all this overtime and stress is making you tense.”
Characterized by strain (on the nerves, emotions, etc). (Compare charged.)
Pulled taut, without any slack.
Produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.
Etymology
From Middle English tens, from Old French tens (modern French temps), from Latin tempus. Doublet of tempo and tempus.
Similar and opposite words
TENSE at a glance
TENSE has 5 letters and scores 5 points in Scrabble (T 1 + E 1 + N 1 + S 1 + E 1) and 6 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #7,633 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
Rhymes with tense
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