tense

Academic Word List, sublist 8.

About 8.50 uses per million words.

Meaning

1. noun The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.

   Dyirbal verbs are not inflected for tense.

2. noun An inflected form of a verb that indicates tense.

   English only has a past tense and a non-past tense; it has no future tense.

3. noun A grammatical aspect.
4. noun A verb form or construction indicating a combination of tense, aspect, and mood.

   The "simple present" tense in English can have several meanings.

5. verb To apply a tense to.

   tensing a verb

6. adjective Showing signs of stress or strain; not relaxed.

   You need to relax, all this overtime and stress is making you tense.

7. adjective Characterized by strain (on the nerves, emotions, etc).
8. adjective Pulled taut, without any slack.

Similar words

uptight tight suspenseful taut suspensive tense up strain strained pumped up wired

Often followed by

and of in is with as or situation forms

Word family

tensed tensely tenseness tensenesses tenser tenses tensest tensing tension tensions