tennis

English

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tennis

English Wikipedia has an article on:

tennis

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Middle English tennys, teneys, tenis, from Old French tenez (second-person plural imperative of tenir (“to hold”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnɪs
• Homophone: tenness

Noun

tennis (usually uncountable, plural tennises)

1. (sports) A sport played by two players (or four in doubles), who alternately strike the ball over a net using racquets.
   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

     “Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke […] whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”

2. (dated) A match in this sport.
   • 1918, Violet Hunt, The Last Ditch, page 95:

     We go about to parties in the daytime as usual, teas and tennises […]

3. (obsolete) An earlier game in which a ball is driven to and fro, or kept in motion by striking it with a racquet or with the open hand.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     tennis-balls

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 11, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     His easy bow, his good stories, his style of dancing and playing tennis, […] were familiar to all London.

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

tennis (third-person singular simple present tennises, present participle tennising, simple past and past participle tennised)

1. (intransitive, dated) To play tennis.
2. (transitive) To drive backward and forward like a tennis ball.
   • 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande , Dublin: Societie of Stationers, , →OCLC; republished as A View of the State of Ireland  (Ancient Irish Histories), Dublin: Society of Stationers, Hibernia Press, y John Morrison, 1809, →OCLC:

     they shall have Intelligence or Espial upon the Enemy, will so drive him from one side to another, and tennis him amongst them

See also

• table tennis or ping pong

Anagrams

• innest, nestin, sennit, sinnet, tensin

Catalan

Alternative forms

• tenis

Etymology

Borrowed from English tennis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian)

Noun

tennis m (uncountable)

1. tennis

Further reading

• “tennis” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “tennis”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “tennis” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.

Danish

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:

tennis

Wikipedia ^da

Etymology

From English tennis.

Noun

tennis c (definite singular tennissen or tennisen)

1. (uncountable, sports) tennis

Derived terms

• tennisbane
• tennisbold
• tennisketsjer

Further reading

• “tennis” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛ.nɪs/, /ˈtɛ.nəs/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ten‧nis
• Rhymes: -ɛnɪs

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English tennis.

Noun

tennis n (uncountable)

1. tennis (sport)

Derived terms

• rolstoeltennis
• tafeltennis
• tennisarm
• tennisbaan
• tennisnet
• tennisracket
• tennissen
• tennisspeelster
• tennisspeler
• tennisveld

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

tennis

1. inflection of tennissen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

Anagrams

• intens

Estonian

Etymology

From German Tennis.

Noun

tennis (genitive tennise, partitive tennist)

1. tennis

Finnish

Etymology

From English tennis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtenːis/,
• Rhymes: -enːis
• Syllabification^(key): ten‧nis

Noun

tennis

1. tennis

Declension

Synonyms

• verkkopallo (dated)

Derived terms

Further reading

• “tennis”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English tennis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɛ.nis/, /te.nis/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

tennis m (plural tennis)

1. (usually uncountable, sports) tennis
2. (countable, Europe, dated) sneaker

Derived terms

• tennis de table

Further reading

• “tennis”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʰɛnːɪs/
• Rhymes: -ɛnːɪs

Noun

tennis m (genitive singular tenniss, no plural)

1. tennis

Declension

Derived terms

• tennisolnbogi
• tennisspaði

Anagrams

• steinn

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English tennis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛn.nis/
• Rhymes: -ɛnnis
• Hyphenation: tèn‧nis

Noun

tennis m (invariable)

1. tennis

Related terms

• tennistavolo
• tennista
• tennistico

Further reading

• tennis in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

tennis

Wikipedia ^no

Noun

tennis m (definite singular tennisen) (uncountable)

1. (sports) tennis

Derived terms

• bordtennis
• tennisbane
• tennisspiller

Norwegian Nynorsk

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:

tennis

Wikipedia ⁿⁿ

Noun

tennis m (definite singular tennisen) (uncountable)

1. (sports) tennis

Derived terms

• bordtennis
• tennisbane

Swedish

Swedish Wikipedia has an article on:

tennis

Wikipedia ^sv

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

tennis c

1. (uncountable, sports) tennis

Declension

Derived terms

• tennisarmbåge
• tennisbana
• tennisboll
• tennismatch
• tennisracket
• tennisspelare

References

• tennis in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tennis in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tennis in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

Anagrams

• nitens, sinnet