# tempered

Pronunciation: US say "TEM-perd" /ˈtɛmpɚd/; UK say "TEM-puhd" /ˈtɛmpəd/

## Verb

1. Past tense and past participle of temper. — simple past and past participle of temper
   - Simple: Past tense and past participle of temper. Use it for something that was made softer, calmer or tougher.
   - _The judge tempered her sentence with mercy, given the defendant's age._
   - _She tempered the eggs with a little hot milk so they wouldn't scramble._

## Adjective

2. Having the kind of temperament or disposition indicated by the word it is joined to.
   - Simple: Having a certain kind of temper or nature. It is joined to another word, like bad-tempered.
   - _She was a good-tempered nurse who could calm even the most frightened patient._
   - _The bad-tempered old engine coughed twice and stalled before it finally caught._
3. Softened or kept in balance by competing factors or concerns.
   - Simple: Made less strong or extreme by other things.
   - _Her tempered optimism about the merger won over a cautious board._
   - _The team's joy at the win was tempered by news of their captain's injury._
4. Relating to the industrial process for toughening glass, or describing glass that has been toughened by it.
   - Simple: Used about glass that has been made extra strong in a factory, or the way it is made.
   - _When the tempered panel shattered, it crumbled into thousands of small, blunt pebbles._
   - _We replaced the patio door with tempered safety glass after the old pane cracked._
5. Relating to the metallurgical process used to finish metals, or describing metal finished by it.
   - Simple: Used about metal, such as steel, that has been through a special finishing process.
   - _Each spring is cut from tempered steel so it returns to shape after years of use._
   - _The smith ran a file along the tempered edge to test its hardness._
6. Relating to a well-tempered scale, in which a keyboard's twelve notes per octave are tuned so that music in any major or minor key can be played without sounding noticeably out of tune.
   - Simple: Used about a way of tuning a keyboard so music in any key sounds right.
   - _The harpsichordist chose a tempered tuning so the program could range across all twenty-four keys._
   - _On a tempered keyboard, the pianist can move to a distant key without anything sounding sour._

## Origin

**Meanings 2–6** — From Middle English tempred, from Old English ġetemprod (“tempered, moderate, governed, cured”), the past participle of ġetemprian (“to temper, moderate, govern, cure”); equivalent to temper + -ed.
**Meaning 1** — Partly from Middle English temperd, temprede, from Old English temprode, a past-tense form of temprian, and partly from Middle English tempred, from Old English ġetemprod. Equivalent to temper + -ed.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tempered (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).