TENOR • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Tenor

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/tˈɛnər/ Listen

noun

Tenor n.

1.

A state of holding on in a continuous course; manner of continuity; constant mode; general tendency; course; career. "Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their away."

2.

That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift or course of thought; purport; intent; meaning; understanding. "When it (the bond) is paid according to the tenor." "Does not the whole tenor of the divine law positively require humility and meekness to all men?"

3.

Stamp; character; nature. "This success would look like chance, if it were perpetual, and always of the same tenor."

4.

(Law) 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.

5.

(Mus.)

(a)

The higher of the two kinds of voices usually belonging to adult males; hence, the part in the harmony adapted to this voice; the second of the four parts in the scale of sounds, reckoning from the base, and originally the air, to which the other parts were auxillary.

(b)

A person who sings the tenor, or the instrument that play it.

Old Tenor, New Tenor, Middle Tenor, different descriptions of paper money, issued at different periods, by the American colonial governments in the last century.

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Etymology of 'Tenor'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tenor" Quotes from Famous Books

... we had waited cruelly for the coach, and Pac. had sung a song out of "Artaxerxes," composed for a tenor, which we lost, to my infinite regret. Afterwards ...

— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 1 • Madame D'Arblay

... shall take them to that delectable spot. What a day it was that marked my first appearance as a herdsman of ducks! Why must there be a jar to the even tenor of such joys? The too frequent encounter of my tender skin with the hard ground had given me a large and painful blister on the heel. Had I wanted to put on the shoes stowed away in the cupboard for Sundays and holidays, I could not. There was nothing for ...

— The Life of the Fly - With Which are Interspersed Some Chapters of Autobiography • J. Henri Fabre

... the tone of the reply, and continued—"It is not any particular action of which I wish to accuse you, but of the general tenor of your conduct. I do not speak harshly, my boy; but if truth be told, you are as idle as you were once diligent, as sullen and reserved as once candid and open: and, my son, your face tells a tale of even worse things, and, but that I am puzzled ...

— Edwy the Fair or the First Chronicle of Aescendune • A. D. Crake

... is attained to only when the whole tenor of the life is in simplicity and godly sincerity. The apostle Paul said in testimony that his rejoicing was this: the testimony of his conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, he had had his ...

— How to Live a Holy Life • C. E. Orr

... impeachment not two months off. At about this time Godkin set down Evarts's opinion that "we are witnessing the decline of public morality which usually presages revolution," and reported that Howells was talking "despondently like everybody else about the condition of morals and manners."[205] Of like tenor was the opinion of an arch-conservative, George Ticknor, written in 1869, which bears a resemblance to the lamentation of Godkin's later years. "The civil war of '61," wrote Ticknor, "has made a great gulf between what happened ...

— Historical Essays • James Ford Rhodes

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