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tensile

adjective

Simple meaning

Able to be stretched.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

tehnsuhl

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɛnsəl

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Capable of being stretched; ductile.

  2. Of or relating to tension

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Primarily written

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Capable of being stretched; ductile.

Used this way, tensile is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

tensile strengthtensile straintensile stresstensile forcetensile testingtensile steeltensile modulustensile loading

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • elastic

    Capable of resuming original shape after stretching or compression.

  • ductile

    Capable of being pulled or stretched into thin wire by mechanical force without breaking.

  • tractile

    Capable of being drawn or stretched out in length.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • tensile strengthnounCompound term

    The strength of material expressed as the greatest longitudinal stress it can bear without tearing apart.

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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.