tenor
noun
- classical male singing voice
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L341107 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈtɛnə(ɹ)/
adj
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.
- 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.”
noun
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.
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.”
“Along the cool sequestered vale of life / They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”
- The subject in a metaphor to which attributes are ascribed.
- 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.”
- 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.”
- 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.”
“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.”
- A tenor saxophone.