A contraction of the words tension and integrity. Tension is the force created by pulling or stretching an object and integrity is a state of wholeness or completeness. The combination of the two provide for structures whose shapes are held together by tension and remain flexible and strong.

Buckminster Fuller term for rigid systems of combined compressive and tensional integrity, exhibited in biology by internal certain cellular architectures and bone muscle-tendon systems

Structure Using Distributed Tension to Hold Islands of Compression

a continuous tension - discontinuous compression structure

a structure composed of sticks held in mid-air with strings which, nevertheless, holds its shape