tenderness

noun

1 I felt an enormous tenderness for her:

affection, fondness, love, devotion, loving-kindness, emotion, sentiment, sentimentality, emotionalism.

▷antonyms dislike.

2 with unexpected tenderness, Sven told her what had happened:

kindness, kindliness, kind-heartedness, soft-heartedness, softness, tender-heartedness, compassion, compassionateness, care, concern, sympathy, warmth, warm-heartedness, fatherliness, motherliness, gentleness, benevolence, generosity, humaneness.

▷antonyms callousness.

3 meat of great flavour and tenderness:

succulence, juiciness, softness.

▷antonyms toughness.

4 symptoms include abdominal tenderness and a high temperature:

sensitivity to pain, soreness, painfulness, inflammation, rawness;

ache, aching, smarting, throbbing, irritation, bruising.

tenderness Oxford Dictionary of English