tense The word "tense" is used as an adjective when a person feels nervous or unsure about a situation: - Dale feels a little tense because he has to go to a job interview.
- Why are you so tense?
- What’s causing you to feel tense?
- There were several tense moments during the discussion when the issue or race was debated.
- A tense standoff between police and protesters ended in a riot.
- A massage will help to relieve tense muscles.
 There were some tense moments leading up to the end of the game.
When the word "tense" is a noun, it can refer to a verb and the time that takes place for an action or the existence of something. - The present tense in English is different from the present continuous tense.
- Our class is studying verb tenses.
- The word "was" is a form of the verb "be" in the past tense. It matches a singular noun.
- Some languages, such as Chinese, do not have different verb tenses.
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There were some tense moments leading up to the end of the game.