Tenderness

How to spell tenderness

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tenderness

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tenderness mean?

1. nounGentleness and warm, caring affection in the way someone treats another person.
2. nounSensitivity or soreness in part of the body that hurts when it is touched or pressed.

Tenderness in a sentence

• He held the baby with great tenderness.

• The doctor checked for tenderness around the injured ankle.

• There was unexpected tenderness in her usually brisk tone.

• She reported some tenderness in her lower back after the fall.

Where does tenderness come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The core word 'tender' comes from the Latin tener, which literally meant 'soft', 'delicate', or 'young', as in fresh new growth on a plant. It travelled into English through Old French tendre during the 1200s, carrying both the physical idea of softness and the emotional idea of gentle, careful feeling. To make the abstract noun, English added the native suffix -ness, a Germanic ending that turns an adjective into the name of a state or quality, just as 'kindness' and 'softness' are formed. The same Latin root tener also gave us 'tendril', the soft curling shoot of a climbing plant, which is a useful reminder of the original sense of delicate youth. The spelling is regular once you see the two clean parts, tender plus ness, with the only real care needed being the unstressed middle vowel in 'tender' and the doubled n where the parts meet.

How the word is built

• tender (soft, gentle)
• -ness (state or quality of)