# tens
## English
### Pronunciation

* Rhymes: -ɛnz

### Noun

tens
* plural of ten

### Noun

tens pl (plural only)
* An inexact quantity or number, typically understood to be between 10 or 20 and 100.
    Synonym: dozens
    Our houses are tens of meters apart, so we don't have to worry about noise from our neighbours.
    tens of thousands of voters
** 1987, w:Iain M. Banks, “Prologue”, in w:Consider Phlebas:Several tens of hours out on its first journey, while it was testing its track scanner by focusing back along the route it had taken, the ship registered a single massive annihilation explosion deep behind it, where the factory craft had been.
* (poker slang) A pair of tens.
* The period from a year 100x + 10 to a year 100x + 19 (mostly referring to the 1910s or 2010s). The teens, the oneties.

#### Usage notes

To express inexact number, dozens is much more common than tens, except when conveying order of magnitude, such as "tens of thousands [, millions, etc]".

#### References

* ↑ Susan Rothstein (2012) “Numericals: counting, measuring and classifying”, in Proceedings of Sinn Und Bedeutung‎, volume 16, number 2, page 536, n.5: “We can (marginally) say tens of people. We can certainly say tens of thousands of people”

### See also

| 13th century | 1200s · 1210s · 1220s · 1230s · 1240s · 1250s · 1260s · 1270s · 1280s · 1290s |
| 14th century | 1300s · 1310s · 1320s · 1330s · 1340s · 1350s · 1360s · 1370s · 1380s · 1390s |
| 15th century | 1400s · 1410s · 1420s · 1430s · 1440s · 1450s · 1460s · 1470s · 1480s · 1490s |
| 16th century | 1500s · 1510s · 1520s · 1530s · 1540s · 1550s · 1560s · 1570s · 1580s · 1590s |
| 17th century | 1600s · 1610s · 1620s · 1630s · 1640s · 1650s · 1660s · 1670s · 1680s · 1690s |
| 18th century | 1700s · 1710s · 1720s · 1730s · 1740s · 1750s · 1760s · 1770s · 1780s · 1790s |
| 19th century | 1800s · 1810s · 1820s · 1830s · 1840s · 1850s · 1860s · 1870s · 1880s · 1890s |
| 20th century | 1900s · 1910s · 1920s · 1930s · 1940s · 1950s · 1960s · 1970s · 1980s · 1990s |
| 21st century | 2000s · 2010s · 2020s · 2030s · 2040s · 2050s · 2060s · 2070s · 2080s · 2090s |
| 22nd century | 2100s · 2110s · 2120s · 2130s · 2140s · 2150s · 2160s · 2170s · 2180s · 2190s |
| 23rd century | 2200s · 2210s · 2220s · 2230s · 2240s · 2250s · 2260s · 2270s · 2280s · 2290s |
| Decade only | 00s · 10s · 20s · 30s · 40s · 50s · 60s · 70s · 80s · 90s |
| Decade only | '00s · '10s · '20s · '30s · '40s · '50s · '60s · '70s · '80s · '90s |
| Decade only | 00's · 10's · 20's · 30's · 40's · 50's · 60's · 70's · 80's · 90's |
| Decade only | zeros/zeroes or aughts/noughties/oughts · oneties/tens/teens · twenties · thirties · forties · fifties · sixties · seventies · eighties · nineties |
| Nicknames | Gay Nineties · Naughty Nineties · Roaring Twenties · Dirty Thirties · Swinging Sixties |
* 10s
* 10's

### Anagrams

* NETs, Sten, nets, NEST, sent., ENTs, Ents, Nest, ents, snet, nest, sent

## Catalan
### Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin tēnsus. Compare the inherited doublet tes.

#### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈtens]

#### Adjective

tens (feminine tensa, masculine plural tensos, feminine plural tenses)
* tense, taut
    Antonym: lax

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈtens]

#### Verb

tens
* second-person singular present indicative of tenir
* second-person singular present indicative of tindre

### Etymology 3
#### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [ˈtɛns]
* IPA: (Valencia) [ˈtens]

#### Verb

tens
* (Balearic) first-person singular present indicative of tensar

### Further reading

* “tens” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “tens”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
* “tens” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “tens” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Galician
### Verb

tens
* (reintegrationist norm) second-person singular present indicative of ter

## Middle English
### Etymology

From Old French tens, tans, from Latin tempus.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈtɛns/

### Noun

tens (plural tenses or tens)
* (grammar) tense

#### Descendants

* English: tense

#### References

* “tens(e, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Old French
### Etymology

From Latin tempus.

### Noun

tens oblique singular, m (oblique plural tens, nominative singular tens, nominative plural tens)
* Alternative form of tans
** 13th century, Unknown, La Vie de Saint Laurent, page 1, column 2, line 16:Ki trop i prent son tens i pertHe who spends too much of his time on it suffers as a result

## Portuguese
### Etymology

From Latin tenēs. Cognate with Galician tes and Spanish tienes. Also compare with vens.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈtẽj̃s/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃s]
* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈtẽj̃s/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃s]
** (Rio de Janeiro) IPA: /ˈtẽj̃ʃ/ [ˈtẽɪ̯̃ʃ]
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈtɐ̃j̃ʃ/
* Rhymes: (Brazil) -ẽj̃s, (Rio de Janeiro) -ẽj̃ʃ, (Portugal) -ɐ̃j̃ʃ
* Hyphenation: tens

### Verb

tens
* second-person singular present indicative of ter

## Swedish
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

tens
* indefinite genitive singular of ten

### Anagrams

* Sten, sent, sten