tens

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See also: TENS

English

Pronunciation

Noun

tens

  1. plural of ten

Noun

tens pl (plural only)

  1. An inexact quantity or number, typically understood to be between 10 or 20 and 100.
    Synonym: dozens
    Our houses are tens of meters apart, so we don't have to worry about noise from our neighbours.
    tens of thousands of voters
    • 1987, w:Iain M. Banks, “Prologue”, in w:Consider Phlebas:
      Several tens of hours out on its first journey, while it was testing its track scanner by focusing back along the route it had taken, the ship registered a single massive annihilation explosion deep behind it, where the factory craft had been.
  2. (poker slang) A pair of tens.
  3. The period from a year 100x + 10 to a year 100x + 19 (mostly referring to the 1910s or 2010s). The teens, the oneties.

Usage notes

To express inexact number, dozens is much more common than tens, except when conveying order of magnitude, such as "tens of thousands ".

Translations

References

  1. ^
    2012, Susan Rothstein, “Numericals: counting, measuring and classifying”, in Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung, volume 16, number 2, page 536, n.5:
    We can (marginally) say tens of people. We can certainly say tens of thousands of people

See also

Anagrams

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus. Compare the inherited doublet tes.

Pronunciation

Adjective

tens (feminine tensa, masculine plural tensos, feminine plural tenses)

  1. tense, taut
    Antonym: lax

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Verb

tens

  1. second-person singular present indicative of tenir
  2. second-person singular present indicative of tindre

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Verb

tens

  1. (Balearics) first-person singular present indicative of tensar

Further reading

Galician

Verb

tens

  1. (reintegrationist norm) second-person singular present indicative of ter

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French tens, tans, from Latin tempus.

Pronunciation

Noun

tens (plural tenses or tens)

  1. (grammar) tense

Descendants

  • English: tense

References

Old French

Etymology

From Latin tempus.

Noun

tens oblique singularm (oblique plural tens, nominative singular tens, nominative plural tens)

  1. Alternative form of tans
    • 13th century, Unknown, La Vie de Saint Laurent, page 1, column 2, line 16:
      Ki trop i prent son tens i pert
      He who spends too much of his time on it suffers as a result

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin tenēs. Cognate with Galician tes and Spanish tienes. Also compare with vens.

Pronunciation

 

Verb

tens

  1. second-person singular present indicative of ter

Swedish

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Noun

tens

  1. indefinite genitive singular of ten

Anagrams