tenderness
Americannoun
Explanation
Tenderness is a feeling of concern, gentle affection, or warmth. It's the quality of a person who cries when they see someone get hurt or who gently picks up a tiny kitten. Writing a heartfelt note to a sad friend is one way to show tenderness, and so is giving your brother a sincere hug on his birthday. Another definition of this adjective is "extreme sensitivity to pain." You might experience tenderness in your muscles the day after going on a long hike. This is actually the original meaning, from tender, "soft or easily injured," and a root meaning "stretched, thin, or weak."
Vocabulary lists containing tenderness
Novel Study: The Crucible, Acts 3–4
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Crenshaw
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The Suffix -ness, Part 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As my sentence loomed, the messages between us were often shot through with tenderness: an unprompted “I love you” for no particular reason.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
I grew up to see the tenderness with which Golding wrote Jack, and started to see him tenderly myself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2026
The palace added: "With her childlike perspective, her irony, her tenderness, and her inner demons, the author created a deeply moving world with which readers identified."
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
It adds moisture, tenderness, and just enough tang to make things interesting.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2026
He pats a small plant with tenderness, saying, “This little green one, one day she will feed us.”
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
