Tenderness is gentle care and affection, the kind you feel toward someone or something you want to protect and comfort. When a parent strokes a sick child's forehead or carefully bandages a scraped knee, that soft, careful touch shows tenderness. It's the warmth in someone's eyes when they look at a sleeping puppy or the careful way you might hold a baby bird that fell from its nest.

Tenderness involves both feeling and action. You might feel tenderness toward a younger sibling struggling with homework, which leads you to help them patiently instead of getting annoyed. A character in a story might show tenderness by speaking softly to calm a frightened friend. The word suggests a combination of love, gentleness, and the desire to care for something precious or vulnerable.

The word also describes physical sensitivity. When you fall and bruise your shin, the spot develops tenderness, meaning it hurts when touched. A dentist might ask if you feel any tenderness in a particular tooth. This meaning connects to the emotional one: just as sore muscles need careful handling, people and creatures we care about sometimes need gentle treatment too.