Intension

//ɪnˈtɛnʃən// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    intensity or the act of becoming intense.

    "Sounds […] likewise do rise and fall with the intension or remission of the wind."

  2. 2
    what you must know in order to determine the reference of an expression wordnet
  3. 3
    Any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase or other symbol, contrasted with actual instances in the real world to which the term applies.

    "'Is a plant', 'has a trunk', 'has leaves' are intensions of the concept tree. Its extension is the set of all trees existing in the real world."

  4. 4
    A straining, stretching, or bending; the state of being strained. dated

    "the intension of a musical string"

Synonyms

All synonyms
bearingcoloringconnotationconsequencedrifteffect

Example

More examples

"Sounds […] likewise do rise and fall with the intension or remission of the wind."

Etymology

From Latin intēnsiō (“straining, effort; intensifying”), from intēnsus (“stretched”), perfect passive participle of intendō (“strain or stretch toward”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.