Tenderness Meaning
/ˈtɛn.dɚ.nɪs/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounQuality, state or condition of being tender.
nounA tendency to express warm, compassionate feelings.
Sentence Examples
Tenderness is an important element in a person's character.
She said her prayers, her heart full of love and tenderness.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef checked the steak for ____ to ensure it was cooked perfectly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He spoke with great ____ to his young daughter as he tucked her into bed and told her a peaceful story today.
Word Origin & History
From tender + -ness.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"I had known him jealous, suspicious; I had seen about him certain tendernesses, fitfulnesses—a softness which came like a warm air, and a ruth which passed like early dew, dried in the heat of his irritabilities: this was all I had seen."
— 1853, Charlotte Brontë, Villette:
"Love me, try to be understanding / Tenderness is all that I'm asking / Don't feel like I'm making conditions / I want to overcome my inhibitions"
— 1980, Diana Ross, “Tenderness”, in Diana (album):
"YSL, as he is often called, is equally capable of casual, aristocratic cruelty and earthy, spontaneous tenderness, and when you study his face it can be hard to distinguish boredom from rapture."
— 2015 May 7, A. O. Scott, “Review: ‘Saint Laurent,’ Beautiful People, High Fashion and Career at Its Pinnacle”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2019:
"Quiet people too, for I think that about this time a sort of remorseful tenderness comes over the bullies and the nagsters, so that they go about gently and deprecatingly, hoping by one day's record sweetness to outface the year's blusterings."
— 1906, Violet Hunt, The Workaday Woman, page 1:
"Amies Oelschlager said in a statement that oral contraceptives that contain estrogen may cause side effects such as headaches, nausea, and breast tenderness."
— 2023 July 21, Amanda Musa, “The FDA approved the US’ first over-the-counter birth control pill. What happens next?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2023:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef checked the steak for ____ to ensure it was cooked perfectly.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He spoke with great ____ to his young daughter as he tucked her into bed and told her a peaceful story today.