Slender

How to spell slender

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce slender

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does slender mean?

1. adjectiveGracefully thin or narrow in width.
2. adjectiveSmall in amount, scope, or degree.

Slender in a sentence

• The dancer had a tall, slender frame.

• The team won by a slender margin of two points.

• A slender vase stood on the windowsill.

• They survived the winter on slender savings.

Where does slender come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word comes from Middle English sclendre or slendre, meaning thin, slim, or meagre, and it appears in English from the early 1300s. Its earlier history is genuinely murky: it may have come through Old French esclendre, but that connection is uncertain, and some scholars suspect a Low German or Dutch source related to words for sliding or sleekness. Whatever the precise route, the core idea was always physical narrowness, a body or object of small width. Over time the sense broadened from describing a thin figure to describing a small or scanty amount, as in slender means or a slender chance. Because the origin is debated, the spelling never picked up a tidy classical root to anchor it, which is why the unstressed second syllable (the -der ending) is the only mild trap.

How the word is built

• slender (from Middle English sclendre, slim), no productive affixes; a single root adjective