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.
The effect is less a fall than a settling—from yearning into tenderness, like an audible sigh.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
His co-star, singer Charlotte Church, praised the show's final, which attracted 15 million viewers within seven days, describing it as a "beautiful vignette of male tenderness and emotional expression".
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
I cackle at the distance between perfection and utter collapse, but I also feel a pang of tenderness: I am moved by their effort.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
What’s more, there’s an ease to all of these things — a soft tenderness that counterbalances the frigidity — as if such intensity comes casually.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
And then he looked at me with this tenderness that was also totally new to me, stood up, and held his arms open.
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
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.
