Word.ws English Dictionary

tendril

/ˈtɛn.dɹəl/

tendril noun: a thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support.

tendril: a thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support
Image: Friedrich Haag, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

tendril (plural tendrils)

  1. A thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support.
    • The Gourd, / And thirſty Cucumer, vvhen they perceive / Th' approaching Olive, vvith Reſentment fly / Her fatty Fibres, and vvith Tendrils creep / Diverſe, deteſting Contact; […]1708, [John Philips], “Book I”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 17
    Synonyms:
    cirrus
  2. A hair-like tentacle.
  3. (broadly) Anything shaped like a tendril or coil.
    • Her blond hair was tied into a half up, half down style with face-framing tendrils.2025 July 2, Yola Mzizi, “With all eyes on them, a ‘WAG’ style emerges”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

Adjective

tendril (not comparable)

  1. Having the shape or properties of a tendril; thin and coiling; entwining.
    • Kissing the tendril fingers - at first because Mina, its mother, did not - but later with a rapture begot by its breath on her breast.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 275

tendril meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

tendril in Tamil

பற்றி, பற்றுக்கம்பி, பற்றிழை

tendril in Bengali

tendril
আঁকড়া ãkoṛa

tendril in Malayalam

ചുരുൾവേര്, കൊടിവേര്

tendril in Kannada

ಕುಡಿಬಳ್ಳಿ
More languagesFewer languages
tendril in Punjabi
ਤੰਦ tand, تند tand
tendril in Assamese
সূত xut
tendril in Arabic
مِحْلَاق miḥlāq

Examples of tendril in a sentence

  • Add the cooked crabs, pako tendrils, chopped sigarillas and siling labuyo.
  • Limbs like tendrils seeking and gaining a hold on his head, his shoulders, his long legs.
  • Liddell nodded, exhaled a feathery tendril of dirty white smoke ceilingward.

All 11 example sentences with tendril

Synonyms of tendril

Forms of tendril

pluraltendrils

Origin of tendril

From Middle French tendrillon (“bud, shoot, cartilage”), perhaps a diminutive of tendron (“cartilage”), from Old French tendre (“soft”) (see tender (adjective)), or else from Latin tendere (“to stretch, extend”) (see tender (verb)).

Words formed from tendril

Phrases with tendril

Questions about tendril

What does tendril mean?
Tendril means a thin, spirally coiling stem that attaches a plant to its support.
What is tendril in Tamil?
Tendril in Tamil is பற்றி, பற்றுக்கம்பி, பற்றிழை. See Tendril meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is tendril?
Tendril can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce tendril?
Tendril is pronounced /ˈtɛn.dɹəl/.
What is the plural of tendril?
The plural of tendril is tendrils.

Words near tendril in the dictionary

  1. tendred
  2. tendrely
  3. tendres
  4. tendresse
  5. tendries
  6. tendril
  7. tendril perversion
  8. tendril perversions
  9. tendrilar
  10. tendriled
  11. tendriliferous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tendril (page history and authors); tendril (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); আঁকড়া (Bengali) (page history and authors); tendril (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tendril (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تند (Punjabi) (page history and authors); সূত (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tendril.wav.

Cite this entry: “tendril.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tendril. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.