tenderness

1. 1.

   a tendency to express warm and affectionate feeling

   Broaderaffectionateness
2. 2.

   a pain that is felt (as when the area is touched)

   “the best results are generally obtained by inserting the needle into the point of maximum tenderness”

   “after taking a cold, rawness of the larynx and trachea come on”

   Synonymssorenessrawness

   Broaderpain

   Narrowerchafingrebound tendernesschafe
3. 3.

   warm compassionate feelings

   Synonymstenderheartedness

   Broadercompassion
4. 4.

   a positive feeling of liking

   “he had trouble expressing the affection he felt”

   “the child won everyone's heart”

   “the warmness of his welcome made us feel right at home”

   Synonymsaffectionaffectionatenessfondnessheartwarmnesswarmheartednessphilia

   Broaderfeeling

   Narrowerattachmentprotectivenessregardsoft spot
5. 5.

   a feeling of concern for the welfare of someone (especially someone defenseless)

   Synonymssoftheartedness

   Broaderconcern

Other forms of tenderness

plural

tendernesses·

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.

Questions about tenderness

What does tenderness mean?

tenderness means "a tendency to express warm and affectionate feeling". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in tenderness?

tenderness has 3 syllables: ten-der-ness. The stress falls on "ten". In IPA it is /ˈtɛndɚnəs/.

What is another word for tenderness?

Close synonyms include soreness, rawness, tenderheartedness, affection, affectionateness. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is tenderness a common word?

tenderness is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.