Search Result for "tense": pronunciation
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. a grammatical category of verbs used to express distinctions of time;


VERB (4)

1. become stretched or tense or taut;
- Example: "the bodybuilder's neck muscles tensed;"
- Example: "the rope strained when the weight was attached"
[syn: strain, tense]

2. increase the tension on;
- Example: "alternately relax and tense your calf muscle"
- Example: "tense the rope manually before tensing the spring"

3. become tense, nervous, or uneasy;
- Example: "He tensed up when he saw his opponent enter the room"
[syn: tense, tense up]

4. cause to be tense and uneasy or nervous or anxious;
- Example: "he got a phone call from his lawyer that tensed him up"
[syn: tense, strain, tense up]


ADJECTIVE (3)

1. in or of a state of physical or nervous tension;

2. pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles (e.g., the vowel sound in `beat');

3. taut or rigid; stretched tight;
- Example: "tense piano strings"



The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Tense \Tense\, a. [L. tensus, p. p. of tendere to stretch. See
   Tend to move, and cf. Toise.]
   Stretched tightly; strained to stiffness; rigid; not lax; as,
   a tense fiber.
   [1913 Webster]

         The temples were sunk, her forehead was tense, and a
         fatal paleness was upon her.             --Goldsmith.
   [1913 Webster] -- Tense"ly, adv. -- Tense"ness, n.
   [1913 Webster]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Tense \Tense\, n. [OF. tens, properly, time, F. temps time,
   tense. See Temporal of time, and cf. Thing.] (Gram.)
   One of the forms which a verb takes by inflection or by
   adding auxiliary words, so as to indicate the time of the
   action or event signified; the modification which verbs
   undergo for the indication of time.
   [1913 Webster]

   Note: The primary simple tenses are three: those which
         express time past, present, and future; but these admit
         of modifications, which differ in different languages.
         [1913 Webster]


Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003):

tense
 adj.

   Of programs, very clever and efficient. A tense piece of code often
   got that way because it was highly tuned, 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.



Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

276 Moby Thesaurus words for "tense":
   accented, agitated, all-overish, alveolar, antsy, anxious,
   anxioused up, aorist, apical, apico-alveolar, apico-dental,
   apprehensive, articulated, assimilated, back, barytone, bilabial,
   bothered, brace, broad, cacuminal, central, cerebral, checked,
   chill, chilly, chronology, close, cold, concerned, consonant,
   consonantal, continuant, continue, continuity, cool, dental,
   disaccordant, disquieted, disquieting, dissimilated, distressed,
   distressing, disturbed, disturbing, dorsal, drag out, dragged out,
   draw, draw out, drawn, drawn out, duration, durative, duree, edgy,
   elongate, elongated, extend, extended, fearful, fidgety, firm,
   flat, fluttery, foreboding, fraught, front, frosty, fussy, future,
   future perfect, glide, glossal, glottal, guttural, hard, haul,
   heave, heavy, high, high-strung, historical present, icy,
   imperfect, in a pucker, in a stew, in suspense, incompatible,
   inhospitable, inimical, intense, intonated, jittery, jumpy,
   keyed up, keyed-up, labial, labiodental, labiovelar, lastingness,
   lateral, lax, lengthen, lengthen out, lengthened, let out, light,
   lingual, liquid, low, mid, misgiving, monophthongal, muted, narrow,
   nasal, nasalized, nerve-racking, nervous, nervy, occlusive,
   on edge, on tenterhooks, on tiptoe, open, overanxious,
   overapprehensive, overexert, overextend, overstrain, overtax,
   overwrought, oxytone, palatal, palatalized, past, past perfect,
   perfect, period, perturbed, pharyngeal, pharyngealized, phonemic,
   phonetic, phonic, pitch, pitched, pluperfect, point tense,
   pokerlike, posttonic, present, present perfect, press, preterit,
   produce, progressive tense, prolong, prolongate, prolongated,
   prolonged, protract, protracted, psychological time, pull, pulled,
   queasy, quivering, rack, ramrodlike, reinforce, renitent, restive,
   restless, retroflex, rigid, rigidify, rodlike, rounded, rusty,
   screw up, semivowel, shore up, soft, solicitous, sonant, space,
   space-time, spin out, spun out, starched, starchy, stiff,
   stiff as buckram, stiffen, stopped, straggling, strain,
   strain every nerve, strained, strengthen, stress, stressed,
   stressful, stretch, stretch out, stretched, stretched out,
   stretched tight, string out, strong, strung out, surd, suspenseful,
   sweat blood, syllabic, taut, tauten, tax, tension, term,
   the future, the past, the present, thick, throaty, tide, tight,
   tighten, time, timebinding, tonal, tonic, trice up, troubled, tug,
   twangy, unaccented, unamiable, unamicable, uncordial,
   under a strain, uneasy, unfriendly, ungenial, unharmonious,
   unquiet, unrelaxed, unrestful, unrounded, unsettled, unsociable,
   unstressed, upset, uptight, velar, virgate, vocalic, vocoid,
   voiced, voiceless, vowel, vowellike, weak, while, wide,
   with bated breath, with muscles tense, worked up, worried,
   worrisome, worrying, wound up, wrought up, zealous