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say it: TEN-dur
tender is an adjective, noun and verb meaning "given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality". It is pronounced /ˈtɛndɚ/ — TEN-dur. It carries 18 recorded senses.
given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality
“a tender heart”
“a tender smile”
“tender loving care”
“tender memories”
“a tender mother”
having or displaying warmth or affection
“affectionate children”
“a fond embrace”
“fond of his nephew”
“a tender glance”
(of plants) not hardy; easily killed by adverse growing condition
“tender green shoots”
plant
something that can be used as an official medium of payment
a formal proposal to buy at a specified price
car attached to a locomotive to carry fuel and water
a boat for communication between ship and shore
ship that usually provides supplies to other ships
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for tender come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.