tempered
/tˈɛmpɚd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.53 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Having a specified disposition or temper.
adj
Pertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.
adj
Pertaining to the industrial process for toughening glass, or to such toughened glass.
adj
Moderated or balanced by other considerations.
adj
Pertaining to the well-tempered scale, where the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard are tuned in such a way that it is possible to play music in any major or minor key and it will not sound perceptibly out of tune.
verb
simple past and past participle of temper
Example Sentences
- "even-tempered"
- "The Pyncheon Elm, throughout its great circumference, was all alive, and full of the morning sun and a sweet-tempered little breeze, which lingered within this verdant sphere, and set a thousand leafy tongues a-whispering all at once. This aged tree appeared to have suffered nothing from the gale."
- ""Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab held it out, exclaiming — "Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold his death! Tempered in blood, and tempered by lightning are these barbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin, where the white whale most feels his accursed life!""
- "The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season; but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist with the sensibility that is not tempered by reflection."
- "[N]obody knows how the wind is tempered to shorn Irish lambs, and in what marvellous places they find pasture."
Etymology
From Middle English tempred, itempered, ytempred, ytemprid, from Old English ġetemprod (“tempered, moderate, goverened, cured”), past participle of Old English ġetemprian (“to temper, moderate, govern, cure”), equivalent to temper + -ed.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: tempred, ġetemprod, ġetemprian, temperd, temprode, temprian