tença

noun

The verdict

“tença” is uncommon Portuguese (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency Portuguese
5
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - pensão com que o estado premiava serviços considerados relevantes:

Corpus desk

Index PT-tenca · tença · Portuguese

tença · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "T" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for tença
PropertyValue
Headwordtença
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechNoun
Letters5
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Cauda longa: rank de “tença” em português

tençaestá além das 100.000 formas mais frequentes do português, na cauda de léxico especializado ou pouco usado.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

tença is uncommon Portuguese outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for tença, a sign its spelling follows regular Portuguese conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is tença, spelled T-E-N-Ç-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    pensão com que o estado premiava serviços considerados relevantes:
  2. 2
    qualidade ou o tipo do fundo; indicação que serve para que o navegante pondere a questão do fundeio e do risco das áreas com rochas submersas

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. "Os Lusíadas" valeram a Luís de Camões uma tença anual de 15.000 réis.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "tença"?
"tença" is spelled T-E-N-Ç-A.
What does "tença" mean?
As a noun, "tença" means: pensão com que o estado premiava serviços considerados relevantes:
What language does "tença" come from?
"tença" is a Portuguese word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list