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View synonyms for tenor

tenor

[ ten-er ]

noun

  1. the course of thought or meaning that runs through something written or spoken; purport; drift.

    Synonyms: gist, substance, content, import, sense

  2. continuous course, progress, or movement.
  3. Rhetoric. the subject of a metaphor, as “she” in “She is a rose.” Compare vehicle ( def 8 ).
  4. Music.
    1. the adult male voice intermediate between the bass and the alto or countertenor.
    2. a part sung by or written for such a voice, especially the next to the lowest part in four-part harmony.
    3. a singer with such a voice.
    4. an instrument corresponding in compass to this voice, especially the viola.
    5. the lowest-toned bell of a peal.
  5. quality, character, or condition.


adjective

  1. Music. of, relating to, or having the compass of a tenor.

tenor

/ ˈtɛnə /

noun

  1. music
    1. the male voice intermediate between alto and baritone, having a range approximately from the B a ninth below middle C to the G a fifth above it
    2. a singer with such a voice
    3. a saxophone, horn, recorder, etc, intermediate in compass and size between the alto and baritone or bass
    4. ( as modifier )

      a tenor sax

  2. general drift of thought; purpose

    to follow the tenor of an argument

    1. (in early polyphonic music) the part singing the melody or the cantus firmus
    2. (in four-part harmony) the second lowest part lying directly above the bass
  3. Leisure:Bell-ringing
    1. the heaviest and lowest-pitched bell in a ring
    2. ( as modifier )

      a tenor bell

  4. a settled course of progress
  5. archaic.
    general tendency
  6. finance the time required for a bill of exchange or promissory note to become due for payment
  7. law
    1. the exact words of a deed, etc, as distinct from their effect
    2. an exact copy or transcript
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


tenor

  1. The highest range of the male singing voice. ( Compare baritone and bass .)


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Derived Forms

  • ˈtenorless, adjective
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Other Words From

  • tenor·less adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of tenor1

1250–1300; < Medieval Latin, Latin: course, continuity, tone, equivalent to ten ( ēre ) to hold + -or -or 1; replacing Middle English ten ( o ) ur < Anglo-French < Latin, as above
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Word History and Origins

Origin of tenor1

C13 (originally: general meaning or sense): from Old French tenour, from Latin tenor a continuous holding to a course, from tenēre to hold; musical sense via Italian tenore, referring to the voice part that was continuous, that is, to which the melody was assigned
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Example Sentences

This means artists are left to take health risks at the same moment they’ve been hit with even more financial uncertainty than usual, said Franz Gürtelschmied, a Vienna-based tenor.

From Vox

To address that, the data science team created new contextual classifications of content, including the emotional tenor of a story, topic targeting and the motivations that audiences felt after reading an article.

From Digiday

The move was widely expected, given the tone and tenor of the reports that had piled up dating back to last year, but it might be more noteworthy than a typical resignation.

Soon after, while seated next to a fellow tenor at rehearsal, he learned that TWC was looking for an executive director.

Short and thin strings produce high pitches, which we hear as tenor and treble notes.

The tenor saxophonist was one of the most imaginatively restless artists to ever work a bandstand.

There was never any one criterion for how every trombone or tenor saxophone or singer should sound.

Feeling the tenor of the day shift, he asked: “Are you okay?”

It is the desolation of exiled Tibetans that dominates the tenor here, but it is not the only one.

“I would expect that,” he says in a soft tenor voice, with the hint of a Southern lilt.

The tenor dies; the prima donna appears to do the same, but the libretto consoles you by declaring that she only swoons.

The Seven-score and four on the six middle Bells, the treble leading, and the tenor lying behind every change, makes good Musick.

These Rules (leaving out the Tenor) serves for five bells; and leaving out the fifth and Tenor, they serve for four bells.

In the metal of the tenor several coins are visible, one being a Spanish dollar of 1742.

He passed them by, and haughty tenor and swaggering basso again took heart of grace.

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tenon sawtenor clef