tenor
the course of thought or meaning that runs through something written or spoken; purport; drift.
continuous course, progress, or movement.
Rhetoric. the subject of a metaphor, as “she” in “She is a rose.”: Compare vehicle (def. 8).
Music.
the adult male voice intermediate between the bass and the alto or countertenor.
a part sung by or written for such a voice, especially the next to the lowest part in four-part harmony.
a singer with such a voice.
an instrument corresponding in compass to this voice, especially the viola.
the lowest-toned bell of a peal.
quality, character, or condition.
Music. of, relating to, or having the compass of a tenor.
Origin of tenor
1Other words for tenor
Other words from tenor
- ten·or·less, adjective
Words that may be confused with tenor
Words Nearby tenor
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tenor in a sentence
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.
Why Vienna opera singers are ready to risk their lives to perform in a pandemic | Julia Belluz | September 30, 2020 | VoxTo 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.
‘Ripped the Band-Aid on some hard decisions’: How The New York Times is reshaping its ad business for a cookie-less world | Kayleigh Barber | September 21, 2020 | DigidayThe 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.
Everything Should Be On The Table For The Houston Rockets. Even James Harden’s Future. | Chris Herring (chris.herring@fivethirtyeight.com) | September 14, 2020 | FiveThirtyEightSoon after, while seated next to a fellow tenor at rehearsal, he learned that TWC was looking for an executive director.
Washington Chorus forges ahead amid pandemic | Patrick Folliard | August 26, 2020 | Washington BladeShort 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.
Better Than Fiction: The Rise, Fall, And Return of Webb Hubbell | Lloyd Grove | May 1, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe tenor dies; the prima donna appears to do the same, but the libretto consoles you by declaring that she only swoons.
Physiology of The Opera | John H. Swaby (AKA "Scrici")The Seven-score and four on the six middle Bells, the treble leading, and the tenor lying behind every change, makes good Musick.
Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing | Richard Duckworth and Fabian StedmanThese Rules (leaving out the tenor) serves for five bells; and leaving out the fifth and tenor, they serve for four bells.
Tintinnalogia, or, the Art of Ringing | Richard Duckworth and Fabian StedmanIn the metal of the tenor several coins are visible, one being a Spanish dollar of 1742.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham | Thomas T. Harman and Walter ShowellHe passed them by, and haughty tenor and swaggering basso again took heart of grace.
The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol | William J. Locke
British Dictionary definitions for tenor
/ (ˈtɛnə) /
music
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
a singer with such a voice
a saxophone, horn, recorder, etc, intermediate in compass and size between the alto and baritone or bass
(as modifier): a tenor sax
general drift of thought; purpose: to follow the tenor of an argument
(in early polyphonic music) the part singing the melody or the cantus firmus
(in four-part harmony) the second lowest part lying directly above the bass
bell-ringing
the heaviest and lowest-pitched bell in a ring
(as modifier): a tenor bell
a settled course of progress
archaic general tendency
finance the time required for a bill of exchange or promissory note to become due for payment
law
the exact words of a deed, etc, as distinct from their effect
an exact copy or transcript
Origin of tenor
1Derived forms of tenor
- tenorless, adjective
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
Cultural definitions for tenor
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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