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Hardened vs Tempered - What's the difference?

hardened | tempered |

As verbs the difference between hardened and tempered

is that hardened is (harden) while tempered is (temper).

As adjectives the difference between hardened and tempered

is that hardened is unfeeling or lacking emotion due to experience; callous while tempered is of one's disposition.

hardened

English

Verb

(head)
  • (harden)
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Unfeeling or lacking emotion due to experience; callous.
  • :* The bloody scene could reduce even the most hardened soldier to tears.
  • Anagrams

    *

    tempered

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of one's disposition.
  • The Pyncheon Elm, throughout its great circumference, was all alive, and full of the morning sun and a sweet-tempered little breeze, which lingered within this verdant sphere, and set a thousand leafy tongues a-whispering all at once. This aged tree appeared to have suffered nothing from the gale.'' — Nathaniel Hawthorne, ''The House of the Seven Gables , Chapter 19.
  • Pertaining to the metallurgical process for finishing metals.
  • 1851' ''"Not forged!" and snatching Perth's levelled iron from the crotch, Ahab held it out, exclaiming -- "Look ye, Nantucketer; here in this hand I hold his death! '''Tempered''' in blood, and '''tempered by lightning are these barbs; and I swear to temper them triply in that hot place behind the fin, where the white whale most feels his accursed life!"'' — Herman Melville, '' Moby Dick.
  • Of something moderated or balanced by other considerations.
  • 1792' ''The downcast eye, the rosy blush, the retiring grace, are all proper in their season; but modesty, being the child of reason, cannot long exist with the sensibility that is not '''tempered by reflection'' — Mary Wollstonecraft, '' A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
  • (music) Pertaining to the well-tempered scale, where the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard are tuned in such a way that it is possible to play music in any major or minor key and it will not sound perceptibly out of tune.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Antonyms

    * untempered

    Verb

    (head)
  • (temper)
  • See also

    * good-tempered * well-tempered