tension

See also: tensión

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French tension, from Latin tēnsiō.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tĕnʹ-shən, IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnʃən/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnʃən
• Hyphenation: ten‧sion

Noun

tension (countable and uncountable, plural tensions)

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

   My tensions with Eric over his alleged past actions have been fully resolved.

2. A psychological state of being tense.
3. A feeling of nervousness, excitement, or fear that is created in a movie, book, etc.; suspense.
4. (physics, engineering) The state of an elastic object which is stretched in a way which increases its length.
5. (physics, engineering) 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).
6. (physics, engineering) Voltage.

Usage notes

• Of the sixth sense, usually only the terms low tension, high tension, and extra-high tension, and the abbreviations LT, HT, and EHT are used. They are not precisely defined; LT is normally a few volts, HT a few hundreds of volts, and EHT thousands of volts.

Derived terms

Suffixed forms

• tensional
• tensioner
• tensionless

 

Prefixed forms

• antitension
• hypertension
• hypotension
• normotension
• post-tension
• pretension
• thermotension

 

Other derivations

• applied tension
• high tension, high-tension
• premenstrual tension
• sexual tension
• strategy of tension
• surface tension
• tension headache
• tension pneumo
• tension rod
• tension wood
• tension wrench

 

Related terms

• tensile

Descendants

• → Japanese: テンション (tenshon, “excitement”)
  • → Korean: 텐션 (tensyeon)

Translations

condition of being held in a state between two or more forces

• Bulgarian: опъване (bg) (opǎvane), разтягане (bg) n (raztjagane)
• Esperanto: tensio

psychological state

• Arabic: تَوَتُّر m (tawattur)
• Armenian: լարում (hy) (larum)
• Bulgarian: безпокойство (bg) n (bezpokojstvo)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 緊張／紧张 (zh) (jǐnzhāng), 不安 (zh) (bù'ān)

• Czech: napětí (cs) n
• Danish: spænding (da) c
• Dutch: spanning (nl) f
• Esperanto: streĉo
• Finnish: jännitys (fi)
• French: tension (fr)
• Georgian: დაძაბულობა (daʒabuloba)
• German: Spannung (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: συντονία f (suntonía)

• Hebrew: מתח (he) (métakh)
• Hindi: तनाव (hi) m (tanāv)
• Hungarian: feszültség (hu)
• Ido: tenso (io), tenseso (io)
• Italian: tensione (it) f
• Japanese: 緊張 (ja) (きんちょう, kinchō), 不安 (ja) (ふあん, fuan)
• Korean: 긴장 (ko) (ginjang), 불안 (ko) (buran)
• Latin: intentiō f
• Maori: tanuku
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: spenning (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: spenning f

• Persian: تنش (fa)
• Portuguese: tensão (pt) f
• Romanian: tensiune (ro) f, încordare (ro) f
• Russian: напряжённость (ru) f (naprjažónnostʹ), напряже́ние (ru) n (naprjažénije), натя́нутость (ru) f (natjánutostʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: sàrachadh m
• Spanish: tensión (es) f
• Swedish: spänning (sv) c

state of an elastic object

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 張力／张力 (zh) (zhānglì)

• Danish: spænding (da) c
• Dutch: gespannen (nl)
• Esperanto: tensio
• Finnish: jännitys (fi)
• French: tension (fr) f, traction (fr) f
• Georgian: გაჭიმვა (gač̣imva), ჭიმვა (č̣imva)
• German: Spannung (de) f
• Hindi: खिंचाव (hi) m (khiñcāv), तान (hi) m (tān)
• Ido: tenso (io), tenseso (io)
• Indonesian: tegangan (id)
• Italian: tensione (it) f
• Japanese: 張力 (ja) (ちょうりょく, chōryoku)
• Korean: 장력 (ko) (jangnyeok)
• Latin: tēnsiō f
• Maori: renarena
• Portuguese: tensão (pt) f
• Romanian: tensiune (ro) f, încordare (ro) f
• Russian: натяже́ние (ru) n (natjažénije), растяже́ние (ru) n (rastjažénije)
• Spanish: tensión (es) f
• Tagalog: binit
• Telugu: తన్యత (te) (tanyata)

voltage

• Arabic: جُهْد m (juhd), فُولْتِيَّة f (voltiyya)
• Bhojpuri: तनाव (tanāv)
• Bulgarian: напрежение (bg) n (napreženie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 電壓／电压 (zh) (diànyā)

• Czech: napětí (cs) n
• Danish: spænding (da) c
• Dutch: spanning (nl) f
• Esperanto: tensio
• Finnish: jännite (fi)
• French: tension (fr) f
• German: Spannung (de) f
• Hebrew: מתח (he) (métakh)
• Hindi: तनाव (hi) (tanāv)
• Italian: tensione (it) f
• Japanese: 電圧 (ja) (でんあつ, den'atsu)
• Korean: 전압 (ko) (jeonap)
• Latvian: spriegums m
• Portuguese: tensão (pt) f
• Romanian: tensiune (ro) f
• Russian: напряже́ние (ru) n (naprjažénije)
• Spanish: tensión (es) f

Verb

tension (third-person singular simple present tensions, present participle tensioning, simple past and past participle tensioned)

1. To place an object in tension, to pull or place strain on.

   We tensioned the cable until it snapped.

Translations

place an object in tension

• Bulgarian: опъвам (bg) (opǎvam), напрягам (naprjagam)
• Danish: spænde, stramme
• Esperanto: streĉi (eo)
• Finnish: jännittää (fi)
• Ido: tensar (io)
• Portuguese: tensionar (pt)
• Spanish: tensionar (es)

Anagrams

• intones, neonist, Sonnite, sention, tones in, Tenison, noneist

Esperanto

Noun

tension

1. accusative singular of tensio

Finnish

Noun

tension

1. genitive singular of tensio

Anagrams

• onnesti

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French tension, borrowed from Latin tensiō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɑ̃.sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

tension f (plural tensions)

1. tension
2. blood pressure

   chute de tension

   drop in blood pressure

3. voltage

Derived terms

• baisse de tension
• chute de tension
• tension artérielle
• tension superficielle

 

Related terms

• tendre

Descendants

• → Haitian Creole: tansyon
• → Romanian: tensiune
• → Turkish: tansiyon

Further reading

• “tension”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• entions, tenions

Occitan

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

tension f (plural tensions)

1. tension