Standard Lemma guide

tenderly

adv · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /ˈtɛn.dɚ.li/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈtɛn.də.li/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: T EH1 N D ER0 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In a tender manner; gently; sweetly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

with tenderness; in a tender manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • tenderly she placed her arms round him

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English tender Middle English -ly English -ly English tenderly From tender + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Albanian: ëmblas — in a tender manner
  • Bulgarian: нежно (nežno) — in a tender manner
  • Catalan: tendrament — in a tender manner
  • Esperanto: tenere — in a tender manner
  • Finnish: hellästi — in a tender manner
  • French: tendrement — in a tender manner
  • Old French: tendrement — in a tender manner
  • Galician: tenramente — in a tender manner
  • Italian: teneramente — in a tender manner
  • Norman: tendrément — in a tender manner
  • Plautdietsch: behutsom — in a tender manner
  • Polish: czule — in a tender manner
  • Portuguese: tenramente — in a tender manner
  • Russian: не́жно (néžno) — in a tender manner
  • Russian: мя́гко (mjáxko) — in a tender manner
  • Spanish: tiernamente — in a tender manner
  • Swedish: ömt — in a tender manner