Word.ws English Dictionary

tends

/tɛndz/

tends is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tend.

Meaning of tend

Verb (1)

tend (third-person singular simple present tends, present participle tending, simple past and past participle tended)

  1. To make a tender of; to offer or tender.
  2. (auxiliary) To be likely, or probable to do something, or to have a certain habit or leaning.
    • They tend to go out on Saturdays.
  3. (intransitive) To contribute to or toward some outcome.
    • She had found in her everything that could tend to make a farther connection between the families undesirable.1811, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume III, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC

Verb (2)

tend (third-person singular simple present tends, present participle tending, simple past and past participle tended)

  1. To look after (e.g. an ill person.)
    • We need to tend to the garden, which has become a mess.
    Synonyms:
    care for, minister to, nurse, to, take care of
  2. To accompany as an assistant or protector; to care for the wants of; to look after; to watch; to guard.
    • Shepherds tend their flocks.
    Synonyms:
    guard, look after, watch
  3. To wait (upon), as attendants or servants; to serve; to attend.
    • Was he not companion with the riotous knights / That tend upon my father?c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

See all 10 meanings of tend

Phrases with tends

Words that rhyme with tends

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tends

What is tends the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Tends is the third-person singular simple present indicative of tend.
How do you pronounce tends?
Tends is pronounced /tɛndz/.

Words near tends in the dictionary

  1. tendring
  2. tendron
  3. tendrons
  4. Tendruk
  5. tendry
  6. tends
  7. tends bar
  8. tends to one's knitting
  9. tendsome
  10. tendu
  11. tendus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tends (page history and authors); tend (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-tends.ogg.

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