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.
But she concluded: "Today I have reached the end-point of my distress... I am so in need of a shoulder, a support, a tenderness, a presence – which you are incapable of giving."
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
She gets a tattoo and embarks on a fling, and with great tenderness Mr. Drury depicts the fallout from her 30-year itch, as it might be called.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026
How defeating it can be to feel these things in the midst of true tenderness, especially in one’s first love.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2026
Mr. Douglas was blessed to have a mother whose tenderness helped to compensate for the temper of his father, the movie star Kirk Douglas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Hobbes stripped the human personality for any capacity for love or tenderness or even simple fellow- feeling, leaving instead only fear.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
