tenuis

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
6
Words With Friends
8
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/ˈtɛnjuːɪs/
See all 4 pronunciations
/ˈtɛnjuːɪs/ · /ˈtɛnuːɪs/ · /ˈtɛnjuɪs/ · /ˈtɛnuɪs/

Definition of tenuis

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. (not-comparable)Of Greek consonants, neither aspirated nor voiced, as [p], [t],
See all 3 definitions

adj

  1. (not-comparable)Of Greek consonants, neither aspirated nor voiced, as [p], [t],
  2. (not-comparable)Of obstruents in other languages, not voiced, aspirated, glottalized, or otherwise different in phonation from the prototypical values of the voiceless IPA letters ([p], [t], [k], [f], [θ], [s], [ʃ], etc.).
    “The superscript equal sign ˭ is here used to denote the Czech tenuis consonant, in this case the plosive [t˭], which lacks aspiration, in order to contrast it with its aspirated counterpart in English [tʰ].”

noun

  1. A tenuis consonant.
    “The tenuis becomes aspirate in Low-German.”
    “Since the explosive was a tenuis before a consonant we have -p m- and -t n-; these combinations were mutated to mh and nh in the following examples, the voicelessness of the tenuis being retained after its assimilation”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin tenuis (“thin, fine; weak”). Doublet of thin.

Anagrams of tenuis

4 plays · some not in Scrabble

Best play unites 6 points

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