tension

See also: tensión

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French tension, from Latin tensiō, tensiōnem.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tĕnʹ-shən, IPA^(key): /ˈtɛnʃən/
• 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.
2. 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) State of an elastic object which is stretched in a way which increases its length.
5. (physics, engineering) 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. 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

• antitension
• high tension
• hypertension
• hypotension
• normotension
• premenstrual tension
• pretension
• sexual tension
• surface tension
• tensional
• tensioner
• tension headache
• tensionless
• tension wrench
• thermotension

 

Related terms

• tensile

Translations

State of being held between two or more forces acting in opposition

• Maori: tanuku
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

psychological state

• Arabic: تَوَتُّر m (tawattur)
• Armenian: լարում (hy) (larum)
• Chinese:

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

• Czech: napětí (cs) n
• Danish: spænding (da) c
• Dutch: spanning (nl) f
• Finnish: jännitys (fi)
• French: tension (fr)
• Georgian: დაძაბულობა (daʒabuloba)
• German: Spannung (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: feszültség (hu)
• Ido: tenso (io), tenseso (io)
• 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: intentio f
• Norwegian: spenning (no)
• Persian: تنش (fa)
• Portuguese: tensão (pt) f
• Romanian: tensiune (ro), încordare (ro)
• 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), 张力 (zh) (zhānglì)

• Danish: spænding (da) c
• Dutch: gespannen (nl)
• Esperanto: tensio
• Finnish: jännitys (fi)
• French: tension (fr)
• Georgian: გაჭიმვა (gač̣imva), ჭიმვა (č̣imva)
• German: Spannung (de) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: tenso (io), tenseso (io)
• Japanese: 張力 (ちょうりょく, chōryoku)
• Korean: 장력 (ko) (jangnyeok)
• Latin: tēnsiō f
• Maori: renarena
• Portuguese: tensão (pt) f
• Romanian: tensiune (ro), încordare (ro)
• Russian: натяже́ние (ru) n (natjažénije), растяже́ние (ru) n (rastjažénije)
• Spanish: tensión (es) f
• Tagalog: binit

voltage

• Arabic: جُهْد m (juhd), فُولْتِيَّة f (voltiyya)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 電壓／电压 (zh) (diànyā), 电压 (zh) (diànyā)

• Czech: napětí (cs) n
• Danish: spænding (da) c
• Dutch: spanning (nl)
• Esperanto: tensio
• Finnish: jännite (fi)
• French: tension (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Spannung (de) 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)
• Russian: напряже́ние (ru) n (naprjažénije)
• Spanish: tensión (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Italian: ^{(please verify)} tensione (it) f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

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

to place in tension

• Danish: spænde, stramme
• Finnish: jännittää (fi)
• Ido: tensar (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: tensionar (pt)
• Spanish: tensionar (es)

Anagrams

• Sonnite, intones, neonist, noneist, sention

---

Esperanto

Noun

tension

1. accusative singular of tensio

---

Finnish

Noun

tension

1. (deprecated template usage) genitive singular of tensio

Anagrams

• onnesti

---

French

Etymology

From Middle French tension, borrowed from Latin tensiō, tensiōnem.

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

Related terms

• tendre

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