tend
verb
Simple meaning
Have care of or look after.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehndIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛnd
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.
verb
Have care of or look after
with to
To look after (e.g. an ill person.)
To accompany as an assistant or protector; to care for the wants of; to look after; to watch; to guard.
To wait (upon), as attendants or servants; to serve; to attend.
followed by a to-infinitive
To be likely, or probable to do something, or to have a certain habit or leaning.
Manage or run
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Have care of or look after
Used this way, tend is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use tend
- “She tends to be nervous before her lectures.”verb
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality.
The work of providing treatment for or attending to someone or something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An offer to buy shares in a corporation (usually above the market price) for cash or securities or both.
Considerate and solicitous care.
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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.