tenderness
a tendency to express warm and affectionate feeling
How often you will meet it
Rank 2,299 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 7,562 times across 155,139 chapters — 0.004% of every word in the library.
What it means
noun
- a tendency to express warm and affectionate feeling
- a pain that is felt (as when the area is touched) also: soreness, rawness the best results are generally obtained by inserting the needle into the point of maximum tendernessafter taking a cold, rawness of the larynx and trachea come on
- warm compassionate feelings also: tenderheartedness
- a positive feeling of liking also: affection, affectionateness, fondness, heart, warmness, warmheartedness he had trouble expressing the affection he feltthe child won everyone's heart
- a feeling of concern for the welfare of someone (especially someone defenseless) also: softheartedness
tenderness in real books
Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.
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And learn from the soft heavens above The melting tenderness of night.
The Complete Poetical Works of Henry · Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Chapter 1
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What flower of tenderness or of intimacy would such an adventurer conceive as his reward?
Greville Fane · Henry James · Chapter 1
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He could not have taken steps better calculated to exalt still more Mme. Favoral’s blind tenderness.
Other People's Money · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1
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The tenderness that was such a marked feature of his character did not come into play at all.
The Soul of a Child · Edwin Björkman · Chapter 1
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Hawthorne had already had his say, however, and he had not used his native town with any great tenderness.
My First Visit to New England, and Others · William Dean Howells · Chapter 1