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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

Dictionary Entry

tenuis

adjective

Find the meaning of the word tenuis, plus dictionary definition, pronunciation, thesaurus-style synonyms, antonyms, and related vocabulary.

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1

Meaning

Dictionary meaning in a clear, student-friendly format.

Thin, slender, or delicate; often used in linguistics to describe an unaspirated voiceless stop consonant.

Example Sentence

The linguist explained that a tenuis consonant is produced without an accompanying puff of air.

Usage Note

Tenuis is primarily used in specialized fields like linguistics to describe specific phonetic qualities of sounds, or in biology to describe a slender physical characteristic. For a general audience, it might appear in older or more technical texts, often implying a delicate or fine quality.