tenor

• tenour (archaic)

From Middle English tenour, from Anglo-Norman tenour, from Old French tenor (“substance, contents, meaning, sense; tenor part in music”), from Latin tenor (“course, continuance; holder”), from teneō (“I hold”). In music, from the notion of the one who holds the melody, as opposed to the countertenor.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Homophone: tenner

tenor (countable and uncountable, plural tenors)

Examples (A tenor singing "O Canada")
Audio: (file)

1. (music) A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
2. A person, instrument, or group that performs in the tenor (higher than bass and lower than alto) range.
3. (archaic, music) A musical part or section that holds or performs the main melody, as opposed to the contratenor bassus and contratenor altus, who perform countermelodies.
4. The lowest tuned in a ring of bells.
5. Tone, as of a conversation.
   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 145:

     Colonel Walton, who had striven to check the conversation at moments when he became conscious of its tenor, now gladly engaged his guest on other and more legitimate topics.

6. (obsolete) duration; continuance; a state of holding on in a continuous course; general tendency; career.
   • 1790, Adam Smith, “Of the Beauty which the Appearance of Utility Bestows upon the Charactes and Actions of Men; […]”, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments; […] In Two Volumes, 6th edition, volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell […]; Edinburgh: W[illiam] Creech, and J. Bell & Co., →OCLC, part IV, page 481:

     It is the conſciouſneſs of this merited approbation and eſteem which is alone capable of ſupporting the agent in this tenour of conduct.

   • 1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard:

     Along the cool sequestered vale of life / They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

7. (linguistics) The subject in a metaphor to which attributes are ascribed.
8. (finance) Time to maturity of a bond.
9. Stamp; character; nature.
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     This success would look like chance, if it were perpetual, and always of the same tenor.

10. (law) An exact copy of a writing, set forth in the words and figures of it. It differs from purport, which is only the substance or general import of the instrument.
    • 1523, Lord Berners, The Chronicle of Froissart:

      Than he shall delyuer to vs a tenour of that he ought to do.

11. That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding.
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

      When it [the bond] is paid according to the tenor.

    • 1832, Caroline Wilson, The Listener:

      He would have learned , by the whole tenor of the divine law , and especially by the example of the absent Lord , whose property he was for a season trusted with , that he was to do as much good to humanity , and win as much glory to God, as was compatible with the measure of his trust, and for the time for which he might retain it.

    • 1960 March, “Testing a rebuilt "Merchant Navy" Pacific of the S.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 169:

      The general tenor of the report on No. 35020 is that all the improvements in performance aimed at in the rebuilding of these engines have been achieved.

12. (colloquial, music) A tenor saxophone.

• (voice types): soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (female, decreasing in pitch); countertenor, baritone, bass (male, decreasing in pitch)

tenor (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the tenor part or range.

   He has a tenor voice.

   • 1962, Frank Howard Richardson, For Parents Only: The Doctor Discusses Discipline:

     Many a star athlete has very little hair anywhere except what he wears on top of his head, and a voice that is absolutely tenor.

   • 2009, Richard Smith, Can't You Hear Me Calling: The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass, Da Capo Press, →ISBN:

     Sometimes Charlie would sing notes that were more tenor than original melody, forcing Bill to sing a high baritone-style line.

   • 2012, Lily George, Captain of Her Heart, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 173:

     The door swung open, and a masculine voice—a little more tenor than Brookes's bass tones—called, “Brookes, come in. Do you have your colleague with you?”

   • 2015, Michael J. Senger Sr., The Connection, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

     Kahn was not a big man and he had a voice that was a little more tenor than most preferred.

• tenor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Tenor in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• Norte, Toner, Trone, noter, toner, torne, trone

Borrowed from Latin tenōrem.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [təˈnor]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Mallorca) [təˈno], (Menorca) [təˈnor]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [teˈnoɾ]

tenor m (plural tenors)

1. (music) tenor

tenor m or (archaic) f (plural tenors)

1. tone, tendency,

• tenir

• “tenor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Latin teneo.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛnor]

tenor m anim

1. tenor (higher-range male singer)

tenor m inan

1. tenor (musical range)

• “tenor”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “tenor”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “tenor”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• IPA^(key): /teˈnoːr/, [teˈnoˀɐ̯]

tenor c (singular definite tenoren, plural indefinite tenorer)

1. tenor (musical range, person, instrument or group performing in the tenor range)

• “tenor” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “tenor” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

From Middle Dutch tenore, from Medieval Latin tenor or Italian tenore, from Latin tenor.

• IPA^(key): /təˈnɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: te‧nor
• Rhymes: -ɔr

tenor m (plural tenoren or tenors)

1. tenor

• contratenor

tenor

1. future infinitive of tenar

• From Dutch tenor, from Italian tenore, from Latin tenor.
• Semantic loan from English tenor for sense of time to maturity of a bond.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛnɔr]
• Hyphenation: tè‧nor

tenor (plural tenor-tenor)

1. tenor:
   1. (music) a musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto
   2. (music) a person, instrument or group that performs in the tenor (higher than bass and lower than alto) range
   3. (finance) time to maturity of a bond

• “tenor” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

teneō (“to hold”) +‎ -or (“abstract noun suffix”)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtɛ.nɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈt̪ɛː.nor]

tenor m (genitive tenōris); third declension

1. a sustained, continuous course or movement, a continuity of events, conditions etc. or way of proceeding
2. a line of reasoning, point, gist of an utterance in so far as it decides legal questions whether individually or generally, a provision (either its wording or its meaning)
3. a tone (of sound or color); stress (of the voice)
4. (Medieval Latin) a seisin

Third-declension noun.

• “tenor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tenor”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "tenor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “tenor” on page 2118 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• Wacke, Andreas (21 August 2020) “Das Rechtswort: Tenor”, in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Romanistische Abteilung (in German), volume 137, →DOI

tenor

1. alternative form of tenour

From Italian tenore, via French ténor and German Tenor.

tenor m (definite singular tenoren, indefinite plural tenorer, definite plural tenorene)

1. tenor (singing voice or singer; pitch of a musical instrument)

• “tenor” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Italian tenore, via French ténor and German Tenor.

tenor m (definite singular tenoren, indefinite plural tenorar, definite plural tenorane)

1. tenor (singing voice or singer; pitch of a musical instrument)

• “tenor” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• tenëor
• tenour (Anglo-Norman)

From tenir, cf. also Late Latin tentor.

tenor oblique singular, m (oblique plural tenors, nominative singular tenors, nominative plural tenor)

1. holder; possessor (one who possesses; one who has)

• French: teneur
  • → Dutch: teneur
• → English: tenor

Inherited from Latin tenor, tenōrem.

tenor oblique singular, f (oblique plural tenors, nominative singular tenor, nominative plural tenors)

1. possession
2. content (of a letter)

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (tenor, feminine noun, possession)
• tenure on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Borrowed from Italian tenore, from Latin tenor.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛ.nɔr/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnɔr
• Syllabification: te‧nor

tenor m pers

1. tenor (male singer who performs in the tenor range)

tenor m inan

1. (music) tenor (musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto)
2. tenor (instrument that performs in the tenor range)
3. tone, overtone, message

   Synonyms: sens, wydźwięk

• tenor in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• tenor in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Italian tenore.^[1][2] Doublet of teor.

• Rhymes: (Portugal, São Paulo) -oɾ, (Brazil) -oʁ
• Hyphenation: te‧nor

tenor m (plural tenores)

1. (music) tenor (musical range)
2. (music) tenor (musical performer)

tenor (invariable, not comparable)

1. (music) tenor (of or relating to the tenor part or range)

Borrowed from French ténor or Italian tenore.

tenor m (plural tenori)

1. tenor

Borrowed from Latin tenōrem, with the sense of "tenor" taken from Italian tenore.

• IPA^(key): /teˈnoɾ/ [t̪eˈnoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: te‧nor

tenor m (plural tenores)

1. tenor
2. (formal) sense, meaning

• “tenor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

• norte (see for more anagrams)

Borrowed from Spanish tenor.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /teˈnoɾ/ [t̪ɛˈn̪oɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: te‧nor

tenór (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜒᜈᜓᜇ᜔)

1. (music) tenor (musical range)
2. singer with a tenor voice
3. underlying meaning shown (by the drift of words or tone of voice)

   Synonyms: himig, tono, tunog, hagkis, pahiwatig

• Norte, norte, terno