Meanings
tempered1
- in compoundsnot comparableHaving a specified disposition or temper.
even-tempered
1 more example
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.
1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC - not comparableengineeringPertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.
1 more example
"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!"
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “'”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC - not comparablePertaining to the industrial process for toughening glass, or to such toughened glass.
- not comparableModerated or balanced by other considerations.
[N]obody knows how the wind is tempered to shorn Irish lambs, and in what marvellous places they find pasture.
1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 5, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC1 more example
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.
1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLCSynonyms: mellow, sober, measured, mellow, middle of the road, mild, moderate, nonexcessive
- not comparableentertainmentPertaining 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.
tempered2
- participlepastsimple past and past participle of temper
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveModerated or balanced by other considerations.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivemade hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment
adjectiveadjusted or attuned by adding a counterbalancing element
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
tempered · adjective
- Old Englishġetemprian“to temper, moderate, govern, cure”
- Old Englishġetemprod“tempered, moderate, goverened, cured”
- Middle Englishtempred
- Englishtempered
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.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →tempered · verb
- Old Englishġetemprod
- Middle Englishtempred
- Old Englishtemprian
- Old Englishtemprode
- Middle Englishtemperd
- Englishtempered
Partly from Middle English temperd, temprede, from Old English temprode, first and third person singular preterit of Old English temprian; and partly from Middle English tempred, i-tempred, from Old English ġetemprod. Equivalent to temper + -ed.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Spanish templado, temperado
- templadopertaining to the industrial process for toughening glass, or to such toughened glass
- temperadopertaining to the industrial process for toughening glass, or to such toughened glass
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
tempered. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tempered
“tempered.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tempered. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tempered,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tempered.
Source: tempered on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.