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tense

adjective

stretched tight, as a cord, fiber, etc.; drawn taut; rigid.

in a state of mental or nervous strain; high-strung; taut: a tense person.

characterized by a strain upon the nerves or feelings: a tense moment.

Phonetics. pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles; narrow. Compare lax (def. 7).

Tense Definition Dictionary.com Find Definitions For Any Word.Get Your Free Dictionary.com Toolbar.

verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

to make or become tense.

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Tense is always a great word to know.

So is articulator. Does it mean:

articulated with relatively relaxed tongue muscles

a movable organ, as the tongue, lips, or uvula, the action of which is involved in the production of speech sounds

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Origin:
1660–70; < Latin tēnsus past participle of tendere to stretch; see tend¹

Related forms

tense·ly, adverb

tense·ness, noun

un·tens·ing, adjective

Example Sentences

NO attentive reader could fail to be aware that the present tense is in ascendancy.

Sometimes those differences develop into tense debates about the borders of the field, and about who's in and who's out.

Korean also adds a plain tense for announcements to groups where status isn't practicable.

EXPAND

NO attentive reader could fail to be aware that the present tense is in ascendancy.

Sometimes those differences develop into tense debates about the borders of the field, and about who's in and who's out.

Korean also adds a plain tense for announcements to groups where status isn't practicable.

Attended by a tense silence, the judges take their places alongside the diving well.

They predict the next verb to fall into line will be wed, the past tense of which will regularize from wed to wedded.

Such stillness and the tense atmosphere are appropriate counterpoints to a viewer who is feeling a bit lackluster.

The fall-out from the kidnapping in an already tense region is yet to be seen.

Relationships between faculty unions and college presidents can be tense.

The city remains tense as another week of defiance dawns.

Test yourself with the five questions from the championship round, then watch video of the tense final minutes.

Patients thought of a word, changed its tense or number and silently articulated it.

Then, out of the corner of your eye, you see movement… and thus begins a tense game of cat and mouse.

Whenever possible, use the present or past tense when you speak.

Tense to the end, the match was not settled until the stroke of midnight and the last ball.

The conflict between countries, and the tense drama of their independent progress, unfolds in vivid prose.

Because the wires are fixed on this stretch, they sag in the summer when it¿s hot and become tense in the winter when it¿s cold.

The write-ups also referred to subjects in the past tense.

Clearly, tense situations can arise in either a talk or a poster presentation.

The second is the tense relationship between the police and local youths.

After many tense communications, my visa was approved.

Our interactions never improved and made the working environment tense.

Sudden moves could cause the dog to become fearful, nervous, or tense.

Once the vibe is bad, it tends to reinforce itself as all the other students are made uncomfortable by the tense atmosphere.

After a tense standoff, all ten pirates surrendered.

It's impossible, after half an hour, to be tense about anything.

Both mothers, voicing small tense screams, rose upright to embrace.

The mind must be quickened, the body exerted, the whole made taut and tense.

They spot the elusive bird after a few minutes of tense searching.

But the conversation at the weekly gathering of local ladies turned uncharacteristically tense.

Never-theless, it seems right to speak of incandescent bulbs in the past tense.

Behind the scenes, however, the relationship remains as tense and antagonistic as ever.

But she succeeds in evoking a sense of history about a place usually thought of in the present tense.

Judging by the tense velocity and energy of the two new posters, there's reason to be optimistic.

She could not sleep and felt tense and nervous all the time.

History, the word itself connotes past tense and/or a record of it.

There is also a tense enthusiasm to his playing and yet a grateful ear for the sheer beauty of sound.

Placating protesting workers may help calm a tense situation.

Across town, a known felon barricades himself inside his house, resulting in a tense standoff for hours.

Noteworthy also is the fact that the unacceptable examples are framed in the present continuous tense and are therefore odd.

Speedy scanned the traffic behind them in the side-view mirror and maintained a tense silence.

If you're tense and anxious about your responsibilities all the time, you won't be attractive.

To view this place in the present tense only, without a sense of its history, is to miss.

It makes us too irritable, tense and depressed to perform our best on the job.

Summer visits accomplish the same thing and are much less tense.

As a crocodile had recently killed an elderly woman in roughly the same area, it was a slightly tense spectacle.

Whether you're in the middle of a tense firefight or backtracking to find something you missed, it's the same music.

The conversation turned hostile and the situation grew extremely tense.

There was a tense air as tour guide commentary was muffled by locals gossiping.

It's dull and episodic when it should be fascinating and tense.

After tense haggling a deal seemed to have been struck over the summer.

If the conversation gets tense or complicated, he may be consciously forced to pull over to the side of the road and stop.

The situation is higly tense and approching to explode slowly but.

As soon as he saw her he got tense and his hair stood up.

Relations between the growers and the houses have gone through tense periods in the past.

In a down-stay he is completely relaxed, not tense and restrained.

Verb tense correction: should have gotten--down on her knees, that is.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

a category of verbal inflection that serves chiefly to specify the time of the action or state expressed by the verb.

a set of such categories or constructions in a particular language.

the time, as past, present, or future, expressed by such a category.

such categories or constructions, or their meanings collectively.

Origin:
1275–1325; Middle English tens < Middle French < Latin tempus time

Related forms

tense·less, adjective

tense·less·ly, adverb

tense·less·ness, noun

Link To tense

Collins

World English Dictionary

tense¹ (tɛns)

—*adj*
1.	stretched or stressed tightly; taut or rigid
2.	under mental or emotional strain
3.	producing mental or emotional strain: a tense day
4.	Compare lax (of a speech sound) pronounced with considerable muscular effort and having relatively precise accuracy of articulation and considerable duration: in English the vowel () in ``beam'' is tense

—vb
5.	(often foll by up) to make or become tense

[C17: from Latin tensus taut, from tendere to stretch]

'tensely¹

—*adv*

'tenseness¹

—n

tense² (tɛns)

—n
	grammar a category of the verb or verbal inflections, such as present, past, and future, that expresses the temporal relations between what is reported in a sentence and the time of its utterance

[C14: from Old French tens time, from Latin tempus]

'tenseless²

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

tense

"stretched tight," 1670, from L. tensus, pp. of tendere "to stretch" (see tenet). Sense of "in a state of nervous tension" is first recorded 1821. The verb meaning "to make tense" is from 1676; intrans. sense of "to become tense" (often tense up) is recorded from 1946.

EXPAND

tense

"form of a verb showing time of an action or state," early 14c., tens "time," also "tense of a verb" (late 14c.), from O.Fr. tens "time" (11c.), from L. tempus (see temporal).

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

tense definition

An inflectional (see inflection) form of verbs; it expresses the time at which the action described by the verb takes place. The major tenses are past, present, and future. The verb in “I sing” is in the present tense; in “I sang,” past tense; in “I will sing,” future tense. Other tenses are the present perfect (“I have sung”), the past perfect (“I had sung”), and the future perfect (“I will have sung”).

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

tense definition

Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code often got that way because it was highly bummed, but sometimes it was just based on a great idea. A comment in a clever routine by Mike Kazar, once a grad-student hacker at CMU: "This routine is so tense it will bring tears to your eyes." A tense programmer is one who produces tense code.
[Jargon File]

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Matching Quote

"Probably nature itself gave man the ability to lie so that in difficult and tense moments he could protect his nest, just as do the vixen and wild duck."

-Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

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