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.
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
"It's like when the first snows come. It's a tenderness, but there's a rawness to it as well."
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
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
Beatty says James Taylor in “Sweet Baby James” was the first voice he tried to emulate when he was young, and that folky tenderness is definitely still in there.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
I knew it wouldn’t last, that the next time we spoke everything would be different, the tenderness of this moment forgotten, the endless struggle between us again in the foreground.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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.
