Word.ws English Dictionary

temse

/tɛms/

temse verb: to sift.

Verb

temse (third-person singular simple present temses, present participle temsing, simple past and past participle temsed)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) To sift.

Noun

temse (plural temses)

  1. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) A sieve.
    • Stone your apricots , coddle them , and rub them through a temse1777, Elizabeth Marshall, The Young Ladies' Guide in the Art of Cookery

Forms of temse

Verb
third-person singular presenttemses
present participletemsing
past participletemsed
pasttemsed
alternative formtems
alternative formtempse
Noun
pluraltemses

Origin of temse

From Middle English temse (“a sieve”) and temsen (“to sieve”), both from Old English temsian, temesian (“to sieve; strain; sift”). Compare also French tamis, Dutch teems, North Frisian tems, Danish dialectal tems (“sieve”), German dialectal Zims (“sieve”). Compare also tamine. Doublet of tamis.

Words formed from temse

Phrases with temse

Questions about temse

What does temse mean?
Temse means to sift.
What part of speech is temse?
Temse can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce temse?
Temse is pronounced /tɛms/.
What is the past tense of temse?
The past tense of temse is temsed.

Words near temse in the dictionary

  1. Tempy
  2. Tempyo
  3. Temryuk Bay
  4. tems
  5. temsavir
  6. temse
  7. temse bread
  8. temse breads
  9. temse loaf
  10. temse loaves
  11. temsed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: temse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “temse.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/temse. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.