tenour

Noun

tenor (countable and uncountable, plural tenors)

1. A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
2. A person, instrument, or group that performs in the tenor (higher than bass and lower than alto) range.
3. (archaic) A musical part or section that holds or performs the main melody, as opposed to the contratenor bassus and contratenor altus, who perform countermelodies.
4. The lowest tuned in a ring of bells.
5. Tone, as of a conversation.
   • Colonel Walton, who had striven to check the conversation at moments when he became conscious of its tenor, now gladly engaged his guest on other and more legitimate topics.1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan, Harper, Chapter XI, page 145
6. (obsolete) duration; continuance; a state of holding on in a continuous course; general tendency; career.
   • It is the conſciouſneſs of this merited approbation and eſteem which is alone capable of ſupporting the agent in this tenour of conduct.1790, Adam Smith, “Of the Beauty which the Appearance of Utility Bestows upon the Charactes and Actions of Men; […]”, in The Theory of Moral Sentiments; […] In Two Volumes, 6th edition, volume I...

See all 13 meanings of tenor