tenor

• tenour (archaic)

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /tɛnə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Homophone: tenner

tenor (countable and uncountable, plural tenors)

1. (music) A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
2. A person, instrument, or group that performs in the tenor (higher than bass and lower than alto) range.
3. (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.
4. The lowest tuned in a ring of bells.
5. Tone, as of a conversation.
   • 1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 145:

     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.

6. (obsolete) duration; continuance; a state of holding on in a continuous course; general tendency; career.
   • Gray

     Along the cool sequestered vale of life / They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

7. (linguistics) The subject in a metaphor to which attributes are ascribed.
8. (finance) Time to maturity of a bond.
9. Stamp; character; nature.
   • Dryden

     This success would look like chance, if it were perpetual, and always of the same tenor.

10. (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.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Bouvier to this entry?)

11. That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding.
    • Shakespeare

      When it [the bond] is paid according to the tenor.

    • Spart

      Does not the whole tenor of the divine law positively require humility and meekness to all men?

12. (colloquial, music) A tenor saxophone.

• (voice types): soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto (female); countertenor, tenor, baritone, bass (male)
• (music) (Initialism of soprano, alto, tenor, bass.) SATB

tenor (not comparable)

1. Of or pertaining to the tenor part or range.

   He has a tenor voice.

   • 1962, Frank Howard Richardson, For Parents Only: The Doctor Discusses Discipline

     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.

   • 2009, Richard Smith, Can't You Hear Me Calling: The Life of Bill Monroe, Father of Bluegrass, Da Capo Press →ISBN

     Sometimes Charlie would sing notes that were more tenor than original melody, forcing Bill to sing a high baritone-style line.

   • 2012, Lily George, Captain of Her Heart, Harlequin →ISBN, page 173

     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?”

   • 2015, Michael J. Senger Sr., The Connection, Lulu Press, Inc →ISBN

     Kahn was not a big man and he had a voice that was a little more tenor than most preferred.

• tenor on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Tenor in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

• Norte, Toner, Trone, noter, toner, torne, trone

From Latin tenor, tenōrem.

tenor m (plural tenors)

1. tone, tendency
2. tenor

• tenir

Latin teneo.

tenor m

1. tenor (musical range)

• tenor in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
• tenor in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

tenor c (singular definite tenoren, plural indefinite tenorer)

1. tenor (musical range, person, instrument or group performing in the tenor range)

tenor

1. future infinitive of tenar

From teneō (“hold”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈte.nor/, [ˈtɛ.nɔr]

tenor m (genitive tenōris); third declension

1. a holding on, continuance, course, career, duration
2. a holder

Third declension.

• tenor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• tenor in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• tenor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)

tenor

1. Alternative form of tenour

From Italian tenore, via French ténor and German Tenor

tenor m (definite singular tenoren, indefinite plural tenorer, definite plural tenorene)

1. tenor (singing voice or singer; pitch of a musical instrument)

• “tenor” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Italian tenore, via French ténor and German Tenor

tenor m (definite singular tenoren, indefinite plural tenorar, definite plural tenorane)

1. tenor (singing voice or singer; pitch of a musical instrument)

• “tenor” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• tenëor
• tenour (Anglo-Norman)

From tenir, cf. also Latin tenor.

tenor m (oblique plural tenors, nominative singular tenors, nominative plural tenor)

1. holder; possessor (one who possesses; one who has)

• French: teneur
  • → Dutch: teneur
• → English: tenor

tenor f (oblique plural tenors, nominative singular tenor, nominative plural tenors)

1. possession
2. content (of a letter)

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (tenor, feminine noun, possession)
• tenure on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

Borrowed from Latin tenor, tenōrem, with the sense of "tenor" taken from Italian tenore.

tenor m (plural tenores)

1. tenor
2. (formal) sense, meaning