tame

CEFRB2

/teɪm/

adjective · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Not wild and willing to be controlled.

  2. 02

    verb

    To make an animal less wild.

Examples

  • The bear is quite tame and doesn't bite.

  • The birds are so tame they will eat from your hand.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Docile or tranquil towards humans.

  2. Of a person, well-behaved; not radical or extreme.

  3. Accustomed to human contact.

More examples

In context

  • For a thriller, that film was really tame.

  • This party is too tame for me.

  • The lion was quite tame.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The wild tiger was not blank, so the trainer stayed very cautious.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English tame, tome, weak inflection forms of Middle English tam, tom, from Old English tam, tom (“domesticated, tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *tam (“tame”), from Proto-Germanic *tamaz (“brought into the home, tame”), from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to tame, dominate”). Cognate with Scots tam, tame (“tame”), Saterland Frisian tom (“tame”), West Frisian tam (“tame”), Dutch tam (“tame”), Low German Low German tamm, tahm (“tame”), German zahm (“tame”), Danish tam (“tame”), Swedish tam (“tame”), Icelandic tamur (“tame”). The verb is from Middle English tamen, temen, temien, from Old English temian (“to tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *tammjan, from Proto-Germanic *tamjaną (“to...