tension
See also: tensión
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French tension, from Latin tēnsiō, tēnsiōnem.
Pronunciation
- enPR: tĕnʹ-shən, IPA(key): /ˈtɛnʃən/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛnʃən
- Hyphenation: ten‧sion
Noun
tension (countable and uncountable, plural tensions)
- The condition of being held in a state between two or more forces, which are acting in opposition to each other.
- Psychological state of being tense.
- A feeling of nervousness, excitement, or fear that is created in a movie, book, etc.; suspense.
- (physics, engineering) State of an elastic object which is stretched in a way which increases its length.
- (physics, engineering) Force transmitted through a rope, string, cable, or similar object (used with prepositions on, in, or of, e.g., "The tension in the cable is 1000 N", to convey that the same magnitude of force applies to objects attached to both ends).
- (physics, engineering) Voltage. Usually only the terms low tension, high tension, and extra-high tension, and the abbreviations LT, HT, and EHT are used. They are not precisely defined; LT is normally a few volts, HT a few hundreds of volts, and EHT thousands of volts.
Derived terms
- antitension
- high tension
- hypertension
- hypotension
- normotension
- premenstrual tension
- pretension
- sexual tension
- surface tension
- tensional
- tensioner
- tension headache
- tensionless
- tension wrench
- thermotension
Related terms
- tensile
Descendants
- → Japanese: テンション (tenshon, “excitement”)
- → Korean: 텐션 (tensyeon)
Translations
State of being held between two or more forces acting in opposition
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psychological state
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state of an elastic object
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voltage
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Verb
tension (third-person singular simple present tensions, present participle tensioning, simple past and past participle tensioned)
- To place an object in tension, to pull or place strain on.
- We tensioned the cable until it snapped.
Translations
to place in tension
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Anagrams
- Sonnite, intones, neonist, noneist, sention
Esperanto
Noun
tension
- accusative singular of tensio
Finnish
Noun
tension
- genitive singular of tensio
Anagrams
- onnesti
French
Etymology
From Middle French tension, borrowed from Latin tensiō, tensiōnem.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tɑ̃.sjɔ̃/
audio (file)
Noun
tension f (plural tensions)
- tension
- blood pressure
- chute de tension
- drop in blood pressure
- voltage
Derived terms
- baisse de tension
- chute de tension
- tension artérielle
Related terms
- tendre
Descendants
- → Haitian Creole: tansyon
- → Romanian: tensiune
- → Turkish: tansiyon
Further reading
- “tension”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
- entions, tenions
Occitan
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
tension f (plural tensions)
- tension