tens

• Rhymes: -ɛnz

tens

1. plural of ten

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, Iain M. Banks, “Prologue”, in 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.

   • 2025 July 23, Paul Clifton, “Air force: drones' developing railway role”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 31:

     "We are looking at being able to fly [drones] tens of miles from base, which is going to make a huge difference. It is the equivalent of having bobbies on the beat."

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.

To express inexact number, dozens is much more common than tens, except when conveying order of magnitude, such as "tens of thousands [, millions, etc]".^[1]

• NETs, Sten, nets, NEST, sent., ENTs, Ents, Nest, ents, snet, nest, sent

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus. Compare the inherited doublet tes.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈtens]

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

1. tense, taut

   Antonym: lax

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtens]

tens

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

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈtens]

tens

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

• “tens”, 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
• “tens”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “tens” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “tens” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

tens

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

From Old French tens, tans, from Latin tempus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛns/

tens (plural tenses or tens)

1. (grammar) tense

• English: tense

• “tens(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Latin tempus.

tens oblique singular, m (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

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

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ẽj̃s, (Rio de Janeiro) -ẽj̃ʃ, (Portugal) -ɐ̃j̃ʃ
• Hyphenation: tens

tens

1. second-person singular present indicative of ter

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tens

1. indefinite genitive singular of ten

• Sten, sent, sten