tensor

noun

1. Anatomy. a muscle that stretches or tightens some part of the body.
2. Mathematics. a mathematical entity with components that change in a particular way in a transformation from one coordinate system to another.

noun

1. anatomy any muscle that can cause a part to become firm or tense
2. maths a set of components, functions of the coordinates of any point in space, that transform linearly between coordinate systems. For three-dimensional space there are 3 r components, where r is the rank. A tensor of zero rank is a scalar, of rank one, a vector

n.muscle that stretches a part, 1704, Modern Latin agent noun of Latin tendere “to stretch” (see tenet). n.

1. A muscle that stretches or tightens a body part.

1. A structure of quantities arranged by zero or more indices, such as a scalar (zero indices), a vector (one index), or a matrix (two indices), which is invariant under transformations of coordinates.
2. Any of various muscles that stretch or tighten a body part, as the muscle that acts to tense the soft palate, called the tensor palati.