What does tennis mean?

Definitions for tennis
ˈtɛn ɪsten·nis

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word tennis.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. tennis, lawn tennisnoun

    a game played with rackets by two or four players who hit a ball back and forth over a net that divides the court

Wiktionary

  1. tennisnoun

    A sport played by either two or four players with strung racquets, a 2½" (6.4 cm) ball, and a net approximately 3 feet high on a clay, grass, or cement court.

  2. Etymology: tenez, second-person imperative of tenir.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Tennisnoun

    A play at which a ball is driven with a racket.

    Etymology: this play is supposed by Stephen Skinner to be so named from the word tenez, take it, hold it, or there it goes, used by the French when they drive the ball.

    The barber’s man hath been seen with him, and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis balls. William Shakespeare.

    There was he gaming, there o’ertook in’s rowse,
    There falling out at tennis. William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

    A prince, by a hard destiny, became a tennis ball long to the blind goddess. James Howell, Vocal Forest.

    It can be no more disgrace to a great lord to draw a fair picture, than to play at tennis with his page. Henry Peacham.

    The inside of the uvea is blacked like the walls of a tennis court, that the rays falling upon the retina may not, by being rebounded thence upon the uvea, be returned again; for such a repercussion would make the sight more confused. Henry More, Antidote against Atheism.

    We conceive not a tennis ball to think, and consequently not to have any volition, or preference of motion to rest. John Locke.

    We have no exedra for the philosophers adjoining to our tennis court, but there are alehouses. Scriblerus Club .

  2. To Tennisverb

    To drive as a ball.

    Etymology: from the noun.

    Those four garisons issuing forth upon the enemy, will so drive him from one side to another, and tennis him amongst them, that he shall find no where safe to keep his feet in, nor hide himself. Edmund Spenser, on Ireland.

Wikipedia

  1. Tennis

    Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to manoeuvre the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball validly will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The original forms of tennis developed in France during the late Middle Ages. The modern form of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis. It had close connections both to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis.The rules of modern tennis have changed little since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that until 1961 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and the adoption of the tiebreak in the 1970s. A recent addition to professional tennis has been the adoption of electronic review technology coupled with a point-challenge system, which allows a player to contest the line call of a point, a system known as Hawk-Eye.Tennis is played by millions of recreational players and is a popular worldwide spectator sport. The four Grand Slam tournaments (also referred to as the majors) are especially popular: the Australian Open, played on hardcourts; the French Open, played on red clay courts; Wimbledon, played on grass courts; and the US Open, also played on hardcourts.

ChatGPT

  1. tennis

    Tennis is a racket sport that can be played individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent's court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. The player who is unable to return the ball will not gain a point, while the opposite player will.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Tennisnoun

    a play in which a ball is driven to and fro, or kept in motion by striking it with a racket or with the open hand

  2. Tennisverb

    to drive backward and forward, as a ball in playing tennis

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Tennis

    ten′is, n. an ancient game for two to four persons, played with ball and rackets within a building specially constructed for the purpose: lawn-tennis (q.v.), a modern imitation of the former.—ns. Tenn′is-ball, a ball used in the game of tennis; Tenn′is-court, a place or court for playing at tennis. [Skeat suggests O. Fr. tenies, pl. of tenie, a fillet—L. tænia.]

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Tennis

    A game played by two or four players with rackets and an elastic ball on a level court divided by a low net.

The Foolish Dictionary, by Gideon Wurdz

  1. TENNIS

    A game in which the participants enjoy a racket on the side and raise the deuce over a net, while the volleys drive them from set to set and love scores as often as it's mentioned.

Suggested Resources

  1. tennis

    The tennis symbol -- In this Symbols.com article you will learn about the meaning of the tennis symbol and its characteristic.

  2. tennis

    Song lyrics by tennis -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by tennis on the Lyrics.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. TENNIS

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Tennis is ranked #17789 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Tennis surname appeared 1,574 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Tennis.

    93.5% or 1,472 total occurrences were White.
    3% or 48 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.2% or 19 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    1% or 17 total occurrences were Black.
    0.7% or 12 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.
    0.3% or 6 total occurrences were Asian.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'tennis' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #3526

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'tennis' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3523

  3. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'tennis' in Nouns Frequency: #1453

Anagrams for tennis »

  1. nestin

  2. sennit

  3. sinnet

  4. tensin

  5. innest

How to pronounce tennis?

How to say tennis in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of tennis in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of tennis in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of tennis in a Sentence

  1. Agnieszka Radwanska:

    I think playing her is always great challenge, i think she is still playing great tennis even she's a bit older. She's still really fit and playing a high level.

  2. Lyudmyla Kichenok:

    My first day on site, that tennis center was shocking. I was shocked how people can still laugh. They were laughing, just living a normal life, i didn't understand how is it possible because my mind was still there.

  3. Sally Bolton:

    We do have ground entry rules, and those ground entry rules are really focused on everyone’s quiet enjoyment of Wimbledon Tennis. So that’s not about what people are wearing ; it’s about the way people behave.

  4. Kei Nishikori:

    I will need to keep things simple and take my mind off tennis, i will probably play video games.

  5. Nick Kyrgios:

    I've just been working really hard, on and off the court, to try and be better as a person and as a tennis player.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

tennis#1#2960#10000

Translations for tennis

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"tennis." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/tennis>.

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