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''tenor'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260615002359-00-⌔

tenor - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

tenor (countable and uncountable, plural tenors)

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  • (music) A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
  • A person, instrument, or group that performs in the tenor (higher than bass and lower than alto) range.
  • (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.
  • The lowest tuned in a ring of bells.
  • Tone, as of a conversation.
    • ✤ 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.1
  • (obsolete) duration; continuance; a state of holding on in a continuous course; general tendency; career.
    • ✤ It is the conſciouſneſs of this merited approbation and eſteem which is alone capable of ſupporting the agent in this tenour of conduct.2
    • ✤ Along the cool sequestered vale of life/They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.3
  • (linguistics) The subject in a metaphor to which attributes are ascribed.
  • (finance) Time to maturity of a bond.
  • Stamp; character; nature.
    • ✤ This success would look like chance, if it were perpetual, and always of the same tenor.4
  • (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.
    • ✤ Than he shall delyuer to vs a tenour of that he ought to do.5
  • That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding.
    • ✤ When it [the bond] is paid according to the tenor.6
    • ✤ 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.7
    • ✤ 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.8
  • (colloquial, music) A tenor saxophone.

Adjective

tenor (not comparable)

  • Of or pertaining to the tenor part or range.
    • ✤ He has a tenor voice.
    • ✤ 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.9
    • ✤ Sometimes Charlie would sing notes that were more tenor than original melody, forcing Bill to sing a high baritone-style line.10
    • ✤ 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?”11
    • ✤ Kahn was not a big man and he had a voice that was a little more tenor than most preferred.12

Etymology

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 (“to hold”). In music, from the notion of the one who holds the melody, as opposed to the countertenor.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA: /ˈtɛnə(ɹ)/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (UK): 🔊
  • Homophone: tenner

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 145: ↩

  2. 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: ↩

  3. 1751, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard: ↩

  4. 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC: ↩

  5. 1523, Lord Berners, The Chronicle of Froissart: ↩

  6. 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]: ↩

  7. 1832, Caroline Wilson, The Listener: ↩

  8. 1960 March, “Testing a rebuilt “Merchant Navy” Pacific of the S.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 169: ↩

  9. 1962, Frank Howard Richardson, For Parents Only: The Doctor Discusses Discipline: ↩

  10. 2009, Richard Smith, Can’t You Hear Me Calling: The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass, Da Capo Press, →ISBN: ↩

  11. 2012, Lily George, Captain of Her Heart, Harlequin, →ISBN, page 173: ↩

  12. 2015, Michael J. Senger Sr., The Connection, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN: ↩

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