tense

1. Tightly stretched; taut. See synonyms at stiff, tight.
2. In a state of mental or nervous tension.
3. Characterized by nervous tension or suspense.
4. Linguistics. Enunciated with taut muscles, as the sound (ē) in keen.

[Latin tēnsus, past participle of tendere, to stretch.]

1. Any one of the inflected forms in the conjugation of a verb that indicates the time, such as past, present, or future, as well as the continuance or completion of the action or state.
2. A set of tense forms indicating a particular time: the future tense.

[Middle English tens, from Old French, time, from Latin tempus.]

adjective

1. Stretched tightly: stiff, taut, tight. See tighten/loosen.
2. Feeling or exhibiting nervous tension: edgy, fidgety, jittery, jumpy, nervous, restive, restless, skittish, twitchy. Slang uptight. Idioms: a bundle of nerves, all wound up, on edge. See tighten/loosen.

verb

To make or become tense: stiffen, tauten, tighten. See tighten/loosen.

Definition: tight, stretched
Antonyms: limp, limpid, loose, relaxed, slack

adj

Definition: under stress, pressure
Antonyms: calm, easy-going, laid-back, relaxed, uncaring

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.

For more information on tense, visit Britannica.com.

An inflectional (see inflection) form of verbs; it expresses the time at which the action described by the verb takes place. The major tenses are past, present, and future. The verb in “I sing” is in the present tense; in “I sang,” past tense; in “I will sing,” future tense. Other tenses are the present perfect (“I have sung”), the past perfect (“I had sung”), and the future perfect (“I will have sung”).

Look up tense in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Tense may refer to:

• Grammatical tense, a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs
• Tenseness, a phonological quality frequently associated with vowels and occasionally with consonants
• Tense, a state of muscle contraction

See also

• Tension (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

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Dansk (Danish)
1.
adj. - spændt, anspændt
v. intr. - spænde, få spændinger
v. tr. - spænde (sammen)

idioms:

• tense up    stramme op

2.
n. - grammatisk tid

Nederlands (Dutch)
zenuwachtig, gespannen, angstig, verkrampen, tijd(svorm)

Français (French)
1.
adj. - tendu, rigide, de tension
v. intr. - se raidir
v. tr. - tendre, raidir, se contracter

idioms:

• tense up    se tendre, se raidir, se crisper

2.
n. - (Ling) temps

Deutsch (German)
1.
adj. - gespannt, spannungsgeladen, angespannt
v. - spannen, sich verkrampfen, sich verspannen

idioms:

• tense up    sich verkrampfen, sich verspannen

2.
n. - Tempus

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - τεντώνω/-ομαι, τσιτώνω/-ομαι
adj. - τεντωμένος (κν. τσιτωμένος), αγχωμένος
n. - (γραμμ.) χρόνος ρήματος

idioms:

• tense up    σφίγγομαι, τσιτώνομαι

Italiano (Italian)
tendere, contrarsi, teso

idioms:

• tense up    contrarsi

Português (Portuguese)
v. - entesar, esticar
adj. - tenso, esticado, com tensão nervosa
n. - tempo (m) (de verbo)

idioms:

• tense up    ficar nervoso ou tenso

Русский (Russian)
(грам.) время, напряженность, напрячь, напряженный, натянутый

idioms:

• tense up    в напряженном состоянии

Español (Spanish)
1.
adj. - tenso, tirante
v. intr. - ponerse tenso, tensarse
v. tr. - tensar, poner en tensión, estirar

idioms:

• tense up    ponerse tenso

2.
n. - tiempo

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - spänna/s/, strama/s/ åt, stäcka/s/
adj. - spänd, stram, åtdragen
n. - tempus, tidsform (gramm.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 拉紧的, 绷紧的, 引起紧张的, 紧张的, 使拉紧, 使绷紧, 使紧张, 拉紧, 绷紧, 变得紧张

idioms:

• tense up    紧张

2. 时态

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
adj. - 拉緊的, 繃緊的, 引起緊張的, 緊張的
v. tr. - 使拉緊, 使繃緊, 使緊張
v. intr. - 拉緊, 繃緊, 變得緊張

idioms:

• tense up    緊張

2.
n. - 時態

한국어 (Korean)
1.
adj. - 팽팽한, 부자연스러운, 딱딱한
v. intr. - 팽팽해지다, 긴장하다
v. tr. - 팽팽하게 하다, 긴장하다

idioms:

• tense up    긴장하다

2.
n. - 시제, 시칭

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 緊張した, ぴんと張った
n. - 時制
v. - 緊張させる, ぴんと張る

idioms:

• tense up    緊張する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يتوتر, يوتر (صفه) متوتر (الاسم) توتر - شد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮מתוח, דרוך, נרגש‬
v. intr. - ‮נמתח, נרגש, נדרך‬
v. tr. - ‮מתח‬
n. - ‮זמן (בדקדוק)‬

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