tens

See also: TENS

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛnz

Noun

tens

1. plural of ten

Noun

tens pl (plural only)

1. An inexact quantity or number, typically understood to be between 10 or 20 and 100.

   Synonym: dozens

   Our houses are tens of meters apart, so we don't have to worry about noise from our neighbours.

   tens of thousands of voters

   • 1987, Iain M. Banks, “Prologue”, in Consider Phlebas:

     Several tens of hours out on its first journey, while it was testing its track scanner by focusing back along the route it had taken, the ship registered a single massive annihilation explosion deep behind it, where the factory craft had been.

   • 2025 July 23, Paul Clifton, “Air force: drones' developing railway role”, in RAIL, number 1040, page 31:

     "We are looking at being able to fly [drones] tens of miles from base, which is going to make a huge difference. It is the equivalent of having bobbies on the beat."

   • 2025 November 5, Zohran Mamdani, “The Full Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Speech”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 November 2025:

     Hope is a decision that tens of thousands of New Yorkers made day after day, volunteer shift after volunteer shift, despite attack ad after attack ad.

2. (poker slang) A pair of tens.
3. The period from a year ending in 10 to a year ending in 19 (mostly referring to the 1910s or 2010s); the teens, the oneties.

Usage notes

To express inexact number, dozens is much more common than tens, except when conveying order of magnitude, such as "tens of thousands [, millions, etc]".

Translations

plural of 'ten'

• Malay: puluhan (ms)
• Russian: деся́тки (ru) (desjátki)
• Ukrainian: деся́тки (desjátky)
• Uyghur: ئونلار (onlar)

plural of 'approximately ten'

• French: dizaine

pair of tens

• Finnish: kymppipari
• Tyap: suswak

second decade of a century

• Finnish: kymmenluku (fi)
• Georgian: ათიანები (atianebi), ათიანი წლები (atiani c̣lebi), 10-იანი წლები (10-iani c̣lebi), 10-იანები (10-ianebi)
• Swedish: tiotal (sv) n
• Ukrainian: деся́ті (desjáti)
• Welsh: undegau m pl

See also

decades in English (edit)

• 10s
• 10's

Anagrams

• NETs, Sten, nets, NEST, sent., ENTs, Ents, Nest, ents, snet, nest, sent

Catalan

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus. Compare the inherited doublet tes.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈtens]

Adjective

tens (feminine tensa, masculine plural tensos, feminine plural tenses)

1. tense, taut

   Antonym: lax

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtens]

Verb

tens

1. second-person singular present indicative of tenir
2. second-person singular present indicative of tindre

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈtens]

Verb

tens

1. (Balearic) first-person singular present indicative of tensar

Further reading

• “tens”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “tens”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “tens” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “tens” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Galician

Verb

tens

1. (reintegrationist norm) second-person singular present indicative of ter

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French tens, tans, from Latin tempus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛns/

Noun

tens (plural tenses or tens)

1. (grammar) tense

Descendants

• English: tense

References

• “tens(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old French

Etymology

From Latin tempus.

Noun

tens oblique singular, m (oblique plural tens, nominative singular tens, nominative plural tens)

1. alternative form of tans
   • 13th century, Unknown, La Vie de Saint Laurent, page 1, column 2, line 16:

     Ki trop i prent son tens i pert

     He who spends too much of his time on it suffers as a result

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin tenēs. Cognate with Galician tes and Spanish tienes. Also compare with vens.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈtẽj̃s/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃s]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈtẽj̃s/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃s]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈtẽj̃ʃ/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃ʃ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈtɐ̃j̃ʃ/

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ẽj̃s, (Rio de Janeiro) -ẽj̃ʃ, (Portugal) -ɐ̃j̃ʃ
• Hyphenation: tens

Verb

tens

1. second-person singular present indicative of ter

Swedish

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

tens

1. indefinite genitive singular of ten

Anagrams

• Sten, sent, sten