temper
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A characteristic state of feeling.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehmperSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛmpɚ
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.
noun
A characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling
“Whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time.”
A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.
A sudden outburst of anger
“His temper sparked like damp firewood.”
A disposition to exhibit uncontrolled anger
“His temper was well known to all his employees.”
A tendency to become angry.
State of mind; mood.
verb
To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.
To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.
To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.
To moderate or control.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling
Used this way, temper is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Characteristicnoun
“Whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time.”
Suddennoun
“His temper sparked like damp firewood.”
Dispositionnoun
“His temper was well known to all his employees.”
More ways to use temper
- “His temper was well known to all his employees.”noun
- “Whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
A characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling.
One who holds an intermediate position between extremes, as in politics.
The psychological state of being irritated or annoyed.
The state or quality of being irritable.
The state of being tough.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A worker (especially in an office) hired on a temporary basis.
Made hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A persisting angry mood.
Get very angry and fly into a rage.
A feeling of resentful anger.
A feeling of resentful anger.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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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.