Wiktionary

tense

See also: tensé

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Pronunciation

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

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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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 […] ‎[1], 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
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  • 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
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Translations
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Verb

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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

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

Adjective

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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.
  2. Pulled taut, without any slack.
  3. (phonetics, of a vowel) Produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.
    Antonym: lax
Derived terms
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Translations
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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

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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
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Translations
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Anagrams

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Latin

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Participle

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tēnse

  1. vocative masculine singular of tēnsus

Spanish

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Verb

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tense

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