MEANING
To heat-treat hardened metal to modify hardness and toughness.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- temper steel
- tempered blade
On the page
The smith tempered the blade after hardening it.
The heat treatment tempered the steel without making it brittle.
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- temper
- Past tense
- tempered
- Past participle
- tempered
- Present participle
- tempering
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- temper
- Present continuous
- am/is/are tempering
- Present perfect
- have/has tempered
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been tempering
- Past
- tempered
- Past continuous
- was/were tempering
- Past perfect
- had tempered
- Past perfect continuous
- had been tempering
- Future
- will temper
- Future continuous
- will be tempering
- Future perfect
- will have tempered
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been tempering
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: temper; tempers; tempered; tempered; tempering Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: tempers.
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