How to Use tension in a Sentence

tension

1 of 2 noun
  • The book describes the tension-filled days before the war.
  • There was a lot of tension at the meeting.
  • The author resolves the tension too soon.
  • Do you sense the tension between those two?
  • You can see she is just filled with tension about her job.
  • He felt a tension between duty and love.
  • There will always be some tension between the desire to reduce risk and the desire to make as much money as possible.
  • Political tensions in the region make it unstable.
  • The dramatic tension was very satisfying.
  • The two sides have to be in tension.
    — Luisa Zargani, Footwear News, 23 Oct. 2025
  • That tension reigns in the film.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 24 Oct. 2025
  • There’s much more tension in that.
    — Kate Aurthur, Variety, 7 Nov. 2025
  • That's where the tension plays out.
    — Stephanie Armour, CBS News, 13 Apr. 2026
  • So, in a weird way, that tension helped.
    — Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 7 Nov. 2025
  • There's a lot of emotion, a lot of tension.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Sep. 2025
  • When asked about these points of tension, Noone didn’t flinch.
    — Lily Mae Lazarus, Fortune, 22 June 2026
  • This is the best way to defuse tensions across the strait and things could move from there.
    — Zhou Bo, Time, 23 Oct. 2025
  • For two decades, tensions stayed behind closed doors.
    — Catherina Gioino, Fortune, 1 June 2026
  • Because that’s what brings the strength of a house, the tension.
    — Miles Socha, Footwear News, 19 Sep. 2025
  • Still, the change quickly stirred up tension.
    — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 20 Sep. 2025
  • Which creates a lot of tension.
    — Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Life is full of people making jokes to ease the tension.
    — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 20 Mar. 2026
  • One answer is the tension between the long and short form.
    — Jane Ciabattari september 25, Literary Hub, 25 Sep. 2025
  • That builds tension and suspense.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 7 Nov. 2025
  • But as the night wore on, that belief turned into tension.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 2 May 2026
  • Many moments of terror and tension to keep us on the edge of our seats.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • The magic lives in the tension between these two truths.
    — Brendan Keegan, Rolling Stone, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Also, there’s less tension in the Porsche garage this year.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 31 Jan. 2026
  • When violence erupts, the tension shows up in our own homes.
    — Adam Abutaa, Sun Sentinel, 21 June 2026
  • Some of the film’s humor around this tension lands to great effect.
    — Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 8 June 2026

tension

2 of 2 verb
  • The degree of retention can be altered via tensioning screws on the shells.
    — The Editors, Outdoor Life, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Post-tensioning Workers must complete the post-tensioning of the bridge segments.
    — Anna Beahm | [email protected], al, 23 Oct. 2019
  • At the Richmond yard, workers are learning to tension the cables and fasten the struts before building the real net over the bay.
    — Rachel Swan, SFChronicle.com, 12 Dec. 2019
  • Will tension between hawks and doves be the defining characteristic of Juntos going forward?
    — Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes, 14 Nov. 2021
  • The team will separate and individually tension each of the five sunshield layers, stretching them into their final shape.
    — Julia Musto, Fox News, 2 Jan. 2022
  • The rear corners and vestibules must be tensioned to maximize interior volume, vestibule volume, and weather resistance.
    — Andrew Skurka, Outside Online, 28 June 2018
  • The left and right buttons should have individual switches inside the mouse, tensioned to register rapid clicks, and reinforced to withstand more frequent clicks than a normal mouse might.
    — Jess Grey, WIRED, 17 Aug. 2019
  • Engineers not working on the project have speculated that the cracks may have led to adjusting the post-tensioning cables, which strengthen the concrete against the stress of being pulled, and caused the failure.
    — Jenny Staletovich, miamiherald, 21 Mar. 2018
  • Big Agnes’ marketing material will often reference the Tiger Wall’s trail weight, but this is not a practical weight, since its performance is greatly diminished if the rear corners and vestibules are not tensioned.
    — Andrew Skurka, Outside Online, 28 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tension.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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