Tēn'or, n.

n. [Lat. tenor, from tenere, to hold; that is, a holding on in a continued course; Fr. teneur, Pr. & Sp. tenor, Pg. teor, It. tenore.]

1. Stamp; character.
2. That course of thought which holds on through a discourse; the general drift, course, or direction of thought; purport; intent; general meaning; understanding.

Bid me tear the bond, When it is paid according to the tenor. Shak. Does not the whole tenor of the divine law positively require humility and meekness to all men? Sprat. This success would look like chance, if it were not perpetual, and always of the same tenor. Dryden.

3. [Fr. ténor, Sp. tenor, It. tenore.] (Mus.) (a.) The higher of the two kinds of voices usually belonging to adult males; hence, the part of a tune adapted to this voice; the second of the four parts in the scale of sounds, reckoning from the base, and originally the air, to which the other parts were auxiliary. (b.) A person who sings the tenor, or the instrument that plays it.
4. (Law.) An exact copy of a writing, set forth in the words and figures of it. It differs from purport, which is only the substance or general import of the instrument. Bouvier. Gobbett.

Old Tenor, New Tenor, Middle Tenor, different descriptions of paper money, issued at different periods, by the American colonial governments in the last century.