tens

See also: TENS

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛnz

Noun

tens

1. plural of ten

Noun

tens pl (plural only)

1. 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.

2. (poker slang) A pair of tens.
3. 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

To express inexact number, dozens is much more common than tens, except when conveying order of magnitude, such as "tens of thousands [, millions, etc]".

Translations

plural of 'ten'

• Malay: puluhan (ms)
• Russian: деся́тки (ru) (desjátki)
• Ukrainian: деся́тки (desjátky)
• Uyghur: ئونلار (onlar)

plural of 'approximately ten'

• French: dizaine

pair of tens

• Finnish: kymppipari

second decade of a century

• Finnish: kymmenluku (fi)
• Georgian: ათიანები (atianebi), ათიანი წლები (atiani c̣lebi), 10-იანი წლები (10-iani c̣lebi), 10-იანები (10-ianebi)
• Swedish: tiotal (sv) n
• Ukrainian: деся́ті (desjáti)
• Welsh: undegau m pl

See also

decades in English (edit)

• 10s
• 10's

 

Anagrams

• ENTs, NEST, Sten, ents, nest, nets, sent, sent., snet

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus. Compare the inherited doublet tes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈtens]

Adjective

tens (feminine tensa, masculine plural tensos, feminine plural tenses)

1. tense, taut

   Antonym: lax

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈtens]

Verb

tens

1. second-person singular present indicative of tenir
2. second-person singular present indicative of tindre

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈtens]

Verb

tens

1. (Balearic) first-person singular present indicative of tensar

Further reading

• “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

Verb

tens

1. (reintegrationist norm) second-person singular present indicative of ter

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French tens, tans, from Latin tempus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛns/

Noun

tens (plural tenses or tens)

1. (grammar) tense

Descendants

• English: tense

References

• “tens(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old French

Etymology

From Latin tempus.

Noun

tens oblique singular, m (oblique plural tens, nominative singular tens, nominative plural tens)

1. 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

Etymology

From Latin tenēs. Cognate with Galician tes and Spanish tienes. Also compare with vens.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈtẽj̃s/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃s]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈtẽj̃s/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃s]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈtẽj̃ʃ/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃ʃ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈtɐ̃j̃ʃ/

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ẽj̃s, (Rio de Janeiro) -ẽj̃ʃ, (Portugal) -ɐ̃j̃ʃ
• Hyphenation: tens

Verb

tens

1. second-person singular present indicative of ter

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tens

1. indefinite genitive singular of ten

Anagrams

• Sten, sent, sten