Word.ws English Dictionary

tensing

tensing is the present participle and gerund of tense.

Meaning of tense

Verb (1)

tense (third-person singular simple present tenses, present participle tensing, simple past and past participle tensed)

  1. (transitive) To apply a tense to.
    • tensing a verb

Verb (2)

tense (third-person singular simple present tenses, present participle tensing, simple past and past participle tensed)

  1. (transitive) To make tense.
  2. (intransitive) To become tense.
    • The driver and the man shouted angrily at each other and I tensed, ready for violence. But soon everyone in the tap-tap joined in, capping remarks, joking, telling chicken and goat stories.1983 December 24, Andrea Loewenstein, “"What's Freedom Without Food In Your Stomach?" — A Trip to Haiti”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 23, page 8

See all 11 meanings of tense

Noun

tensing (plural tensings)

  1. The act of making something tense.
    • tensings of the muscles

Forms of tensing

pluraltensings

Words formed from tensing

Phrases with tensing

Questions about tensing

What does tensing mean?
Tensing means the act of making something tense.
What is tensing the present participle and gerund of?
Tensing is the present participle and gerund of tense.
What part of speech is tensing?
Tensing is a noun.
What is the plural of tensing?
The plural of tensing is tensings.

Words near tensing in the dictionary

  1. tensilities
  2. tensility
  3. tensimeter
  4. tensimeters
  5. tensin
  6. tensing
  7. tensing up
  8. tensings
  9. tensins
  10. tensioactivity
  11. tensiograph

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tensing (page history and authors); tense (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: “tensing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tensing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.