tenseur

\tɑ̃.sœʁ\

/\tɑ̃.sœʁ\/ adj

The verdict

“tenseur” is uncommon French (frequency #63,406 among 3,703 “T” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#63,406
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui tend, qui provoque une tension.

Corpus desk

Index FR-tenseur · tenseur · French

tenseur · rank #63,406 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #63,406
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH tenanciers

Nearest frequency peer: tenanciers (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « tenseur »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « tenseur » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for tenseur
PropertyValue
Headwordtenseur
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\tɑ̃.sœʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#63,406
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « tenseur » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.tenseurtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « tenanciers » (#63,405), « Thiais » (#63,407), « technocrate » (#63,404). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « tenseur » est au #63,406. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tenseur is uncommon French at frequency #63,406 among 3,703 “T” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \tɑ̃.sœʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

tenseur doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is tenseur, spelled T-E-N-S-E-U-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui tend, qui provoque une tension.
  2. 2
    Muscle qui produit la tension d’une structure anatomique. → voir extenseur

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how tenseur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Cette crème a un effet tenseur et raffermissant.
  2. Le muscle tenseur du voile du palais en assure la mobilité.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tenseur"?
"tenseur" is spelled T-E-N-S-E-U-R. The IPA pronunciation is \tɑ̃.sœʁ\.
What does "tenseur" mean?
As an adjective, "tenseur" means: Qui tend, qui provoque une tension.
How do you pronounce "tenseur"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "tenseur" is \tɑ̃.sœʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "tenseur" come from?
"tenseur" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "tenseur", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list