tenor

Meanings

Noun

• A musical range or section higher than bass and lower than alto.
• A person, instrument or group that performs in the tenor range.
• A musical part or section that holds or performs the main melody, as opposed to the contratenor bassus and contratenor altus, who perform countermelodies.
• The lowest tuned in a ring of bells.
• Tone, as of a conversation.
• duration; continuance; a state of holding on in a continuous course; general tendency; career.
• The subject in a metaphor to which attributes are ascribed.
• Time to maturity of a bond.
• Stamp; character; nature.
• An exact copy of a writing, set forth in the words and figures of it. It differs from purport, which is only the substance or general import of the instrument.
• That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding.
• A tenor saxophone.

Adjective

• Of or pertaining to the tenor part or range.

Origin

• From Middle English tenour, from Anglo-Norman tenour, from Old French tenor ("substance, contents, meaning, sense; tenor part in music"), from Latin tenor ("course, continuance; holder"), from teneō. In music, from the notion of the one who holds the melody, as opposed to the countertenor.