tenor
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehnerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛnɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
music
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.
Tone, as of a conversation.
That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding.
The lowest tuned in a ring of bells.
Stamp; character; nature.
adjective
Of or pertaining to the tenor part or range.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
Used this way, tenor is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Music/performance
- Arts writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use tenor
- “Nothing disturbed the even tenor of her ways.”noun
- “Although I disagreed with him I could follow the tenor of his argument.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A musician who plays the tenor saxophone.
The adult male singing voice above baritone.
A clef that puts middle C on the fourth line of the staff.
Any of various drums with small heads.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.