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temper

/ˈtɛmpɚ/noun, verb

temper is spelled T-E-M-P-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 6.5 times per million words in written English, the 9,463rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, temper means “A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of temper is tempers.

How many letters and syllables are in temper?

Letters6: T-E-M-P-E-R
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.5 times per million words; the 9,463rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is temper?

Temper appears 6.5 times per million words in written English, the 9,463rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce temper?

  • UK /ˈtɛmpə/
  • US /ˈtɛmpɚ/

Temper has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-temper.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of temper

  • tempers plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • tempre
  • tempering participle, present
  • tempered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does temper mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A general tendency or orientation towards a certain type of mood, a volatile state; a habitual way of thinking, behaving or reacting.

    to have a good, bad, or calm temper

  2. 2

    State of mind; mood.

  3. 3

    A tendency to become angry.

    Mind your hasty temper!

  4. 4

    Anger; a fit of anger.

    an outburst of temper

  5. 5

    Calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity; composure.

    to keep one's temper; to lose one's temper; to recover one's temper

  6. 6

    obsoleteConstitution of body; the mixture or relative proportion of the four humours: blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy.

  7. 7

    Middle state or course; mean; medium.

  8. 8

    The state of any compound substance which results from the mixture of various ingredients; due mixture of different qualities.

    the temper of mortar

verb

  1. 1

    To moderate or control.

    Temper your language around children.

  2. 2

    To strengthen or toughen a material, especially metal, by heat treatment; anneal.

    Tempering is a heat treatment technique applied to metals, alloys, and glass to achieve greater toughness by increasing the strength of materials and/or ductility. Tempering is performed by a controlled reheating of the work piece to a temp

  3. 3

    To adjust the temperature of an ingredient (e.g. eggs or chocolate) gradually so that it remains smooth and pleasing.

  4. 4

    To sauté spices in ghee or oil to release essential oils for flavouring a dish in South Asian cuisine.

  5. 5

    To mix clay, plaster or mortar with water to obtain the proper consistency.

  6. 6

    To adjust, as the mathematical scale to the actual scale, or to that in actual use.

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo govern; to manage.

  8. 8

    archaicTo combine in due proportions; to constitute; to compose.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Temper in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcaractère, tempérament (tendency to be of a certain type of mood), humeur, état d'esprit (state of mind), revenu (heat treatment), revenir (to strengthen or toughen by heat treatment)
GermanGereiztheit, Laune, Temperament (tendency to be of a certain type of mood), Anlassen, Ausheizen (heat treatment), mäßigen (to moderate or control)
Portuguesetemperamento (tendency to be of a certain type of mood), têmpera (heat treatment), temperar, moderar, regular, controlar (to moderate or control)
Spanishtemperamento, carácter (tendency to be of a certain type of mood), revenido (heat treatment), templar, temperar (to moderate or control), temple (calmness of mind; moderation; equanimity…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does temper come from?

From Middle English temperen, tempren, from Old English ġetemprian, temprian, borrowed from Latin temperō (“(transitive) to divide or proportion duly, to moderate, to regulate; (intransitive) to be moderate, temperate”), from tempus (“time, fit season”). Compare also French tempérer. Doublet of tamper. See temporal.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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