tens
See also: TENS
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- Rhymes: -ɛnz
Noun edit
tens
Noun edit
tens pl (plural only)
- An inexact quantity or number, typically understood to be between 10 or 20 and 100.
- Synonym: dozens
- Our houses are tens of meters apart, so we don't have to worry about noise from our neighbours.
- tens of thousands of voters
- 1987, w:Iain M. Banks, “Prologue”, in w:Consider Phlebas:
- Several tens of hours out on its first journey, while it was testing its track scanner by focusing back along the route it had taken, the ship registered a single massive annihilation explosion deep behind it, where the factory craft had been.
- (poker slang) A pair of tens.
- The period from a year 100x + 10 to a year 100x + 19 (mostly referring to the 1910s or 2010s). The teens, the oneties.
Usage notes edit
To express inexact number, dozens is much more common than tens, except when conveying order of magnitude, such as "tens of thousands [, millions, etc]".[1]
Translations edit
plural of 'ten'
plural of 'approximately ten'
|
second decade of a century
|
References edit
See also edit
22nd century | 2100s · 2110s · 2120s · 2130s · 2140s · 2150s · 2160s · 2170s · 2180s · 2190s |
---|---|
21st century | 2000s · 2010s · 2020s · 2030s · 2040s · 2050s · 2060s · 2070s · 2080s · 2090s |
20th century | 1900s · 1910s · 1920s · 1930s · 1940s · 1950s · 1960s · 1970s · 1980s · 1990s |
19th century | 1800s · 1810s · 1820s · 1830s · 1840s · 1850s · 1860s · 1870s · 1880s · 1890s |
18th century | 1700s · 1710s · 1720s · 1730s · 1740s · 1750s · 1760s · 1770s · 1780s · 1790s |
14th century | 1300s · 1310s · 1320s · 1330s · 1340s · 1350s · 1360s · 1370s · 1380s · 1390s |
Decade only | 00s · 10s · 20s · 30s · 40s · 50s · 60s · 70s · 80s · 90s |
'00s · '10s · '20s · '30s · '40s · '50s · '60s · '70s · '80s · '90s | |
00's · 10's · 20's · 30's · 40's · 50's · 60's · 70's · 80's · 90's | |
zeros/zeroes or aughts/noughties/oughts · oneties/tens/teens · twenties · thirties · forties · fifties · sixties · seventies · eighties · nineties | |
Nicknames | Gay Nineties · Naughty Nineties · Roaring Twenties · Dirty Thirties · Swinging Sixties |
Anagrams edit
Catalan edit
Etymology 1 edit
Borrowed from Latin tēnsus. Compare the inherited doublet tes.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
tens (feminine tensa, masculine plural tensos, feminine plural tenses)
Etymology 2 edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
tens
- second-person singular present indicative of tenir
- second-person singular present indicative of tindre
Etymology 3 edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
tens
Further reading edit
- “tens” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “tens”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
- “tens” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “tens” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
Galician edit
Verb edit
tens
- (reintegrationist norm) second-person singular present indicative of ter
Middle English edit
Etymology edit
From Old French tens, tans, from Latin tempus.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
tens (plural tenses or tens)
Descendants edit
- English: tense
References edit
- “tens(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
Old French edit
Etymology edit
Noun edit
tens oblique singular, m (oblique plural tens, nominative singular tens, nominative plural tens)
- Alternative form of tans
- 13th century, Unknown, La Vie de Saint Laurent, page 1, column 2, line 16:
- Ki trop i prent son tens i pert
- He who spends too much of his time on it suffers as a result
Portuguese edit
Etymology edit
From Latin tenēs. Cognate with Galician tes and Spanish tienes. Also compare with vens.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
tens
Swedish edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (file)
Noun edit
tens