tense

Tightly stretched.

Example: Make sure that the net is as stretched as tense as possible for maximum coverage.

Stressed; nervous.

Example: How odd it was that he was a very courageous boy, yet he became very tense when he was being asked to dance.

Tense is a grammatical system of verb forms that usually shows past, present, or future time.

Example: Unlike French, English only has two tenses: past and present.

A tense is one of the verb forms marked by the tense system.

Example: The verb cut is spelled the same in both tenses.

In popular language, a tense is often used to refer to any verb form including tense, aspect, mood, and voice.

Example: Shouldn't this be in the progressive tense?