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tenor

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tenor

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The approximate range of the tenor voice.

Highest range of the adult male singing voice when not using falsetto, approximately C3–A5. It is the preferred voice for operatic heroic roles. Well-known tenors are Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. It is also used before the name of an instrument that sounds in the same range as the tenor voice, for example tenor saxophone.

The word comes from the Latin teneo ‘I hold’, because it ‘held’ the plainsong theme in early polyphony.



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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
You are of course aware that every Man has two mouths or voices -- as well as two eyes -- a bass at one and a tenor at the other of his extremities.
Flatland by Abbott, Edwin View in context
When the ceremony of plighting troth was over, the beadle spread before the lectern in the middle of the church a piece of pink silken stuff, the choir sang a complicated and elaborate psalm, in which the bass and tenor sang responses to one another, and the priest turning round pointed the bridal pair to the pink silk rug.
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, Leo View in context
The necessity of a concurrent jurisdiction in certain cases results from the division of the sovereign power; and the rule that all authorities, of which the States are not explicitly divested in favor of the Union, remain with them in full vigor, is not a theoretical consequence of that division, but is clearly admitted by the whole tenor of the instrument which contains the articles of the proposed Constitution.
Federalist Papers Authored by Alexander Hamilton by Hamilton, Alexander View in context
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