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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tension.

The condition of being held in a state between two or more forces, which are acting in opposition to each other.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtɛnʃən/General-American/ˈtɛnʃn̩/Received-Pronunciation
  1. The condition of being held in a state between two or more forces, which are acting in opposition to each other.

    countable · uncountable
    My tensions with Eric over his alleged past actions have been fully resolved.
  2. A psychological state of being tense.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A feeling of nervousness, excitement, or fear that is created in a movie, book, etc.; suspense.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The state of an elastic object which is stretched in a way which increases its length.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A force transmitted through a rope, string, cable, or similar object (used with prepositions on, in, or of, e.g., "The tension in the cable is 1000 N", to convey that the same magnitude of force applies to objects attached to both ends).

    countable · uncountable
  6. Voltage.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *téndeti Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin tēnsiōder. Middle French tensionbor. English tension Borrowed from Middle French tension, from Latin tēnsiō.

verb/ˈtɛnʃən/General-American/ˈtɛnʃn̩/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To place an object in tension, to pull or place strain on.

    We tensioned the cable until it snapped.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *téndeti Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin tēnsiōder. Middle French tensionbor. English tension Borrowed from Middle French tension, from Latin tēnsiō.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.