tame
adjective · verb
Simple meaning
Docile or tranquil towards humans.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
taymIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈteɪm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
chiefly of animals
Docile or tranquil towards humans.
chiefly of animals
Accustomed to human contact.
figurative
Of a person, well-behaved; not radical or extreme.
Not exciting.
Crushed; subdued; depressed; spiritless.
verb
Make less strong or intense; soften
Make fit for cultivation, domestic life, and service to humans
transitive
To make submissive or docile.
transitive
To make gentle or meek.
transitive
To take control of something that is unruly.
transitive
To make (an animal) tame; to domesticate.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
More ways to use tame
- “He tames lions for the circus.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
An animal trainer who tames wild animals.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A nongovernmental organization of Pakistani scientists that has been a supporter of terrorism.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.