n.
- The act or process of stretching something tight.
- The condition of so being stretched; tautness.
- A force tending to stretch or elongate something.
- A measure of such a force: a tension on the cable of 50 pounds.
- Mental, emotional, or nervous strain: working under great tension to make a deadline.
- Barely controlled hostility or a strained relationship between people or groups: the dangerous tension between opposing military powers.
- A balanced relation between strongly opposing elements: "the continuing, and essential, tension between two of the three branches of government, judicial and legislative" (Haynes Johnson).
- The interplay of conflicting elements in a piece of literature, especially a poem.
- A device for regulating tautness, especially a device that controls the tautness of thread on a sewing machine or loom.
- Electricity. Voltage or potential; electromotive force.
To subject to tension; tighten.
[Latin tēnsiō, tēnsiōn-, a stretching out, from tēnsus, past participle of tendere, to stretch. See tense1.]
tensional ten'sion·al adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
