intension
noun/ɪnˈtɛnʃən/
Etymology From Latin intēnsiō (“straining, effort; intensifying”), from intēnsus (“stretched”), perfect passive participle of intendō (“strain or stretch toward”).
1
Intensity or the act of becoming intense.
- Sounds […] likewise do rise and fall with the intension or remission of the wind.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
2
Human sciences, Linguistics, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Sciences, Semantics Any property or quality connoted by a word, phrase or other symbol, contrasted with actual instances in the real world to which the term applies.
- 'Is a plant', 'has a trunk', 'has leaves' are intensions of the concept tree. Its extension is the set of all trees existing in the real world.
- This law is, that the intension of our knowledge is in the inverse ratio of its extension.a. 1857, William Hamilton, edited by H[enry] L[ongueville] Mansel and John Veitch, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1859–1860, →OCLC:
3
Dated A straining, stretching, or bending; the state of being strained.
- the intension of a musical string
- Derived terms
- cointension, intensional