Suffix · forms adjectives
Describes someone's emotional character: even-tempered (calm, steady) versus hot-tempered (quick to anger).
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
-tempered forms compound adjectives that describe a person's characteristic emotional reaction patterns, particularly how they handle frustration, conflict, or provocation. Even-tempered, hot-tempered, bad-tempered, ill-tempered, short-tempered — each compound describes a consistent emotional pattern that defines how someone relates to others under stress. These words are especially useful in character description and psychology.
Adjective + tempered.
This is not a productive rule you can apply freely: it is a closed set of fixed expressions. Learn them one by one as set phrases.
-tempered
Tap the button to hear how the ending sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
"Bad-tempered" and "ill-tempered" both describe a generally irritable disposition, though "ill-tempered" is slightly more formal. "Short-tempered" specifically implies that the person loses their temper quickly and easily, with little provocation — the emphasis is on how quickly the anger arrives, not just its existence.
"Good-tempered" = generally cheerful and easy to please. "Even-tempered" = consistently calm and not easily upset by anything. "Even-tempered" specifically implies emotional stability and resistance to provocation. "Good-tempered" implies positive mood; "even-tempered" implies emotional consistency regardless of mood.
A trick to remember it
-tempered compounds are precise tools for character description. Instead of writing "he got angry easily," you can write "he was short-tempered." Instead of "she stayed calm under pressure," you can write "she was even-tempered." In fiction and biography, these compounds compress an emotional pattern into a single efficient modifier — which is exactly what good prose does.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
"She was short-tempered when she was tired." What does "short-tempered" suggest?
Exercise 3 · Form the word
The suffix -tempered describes someone's emotional character: even-tempered (calm, steady) versus hot-tempered (quick to anger). In Spanish it usually maps to de temperamento / de carácter.
"even" becomes "even-tempered". It is a typical example of the -tempered suffix.
having a specified type of mental clarity, character, or state of mind
Describes someone's emotional character: warmhearted (kind, affectionate) and coldhearted (unfeeling, unkind).
Describes someone's way of thinking: open-minded (accepting of new ideas) versus narrow-minded (closed off, intolerant).
-tion, -ness, -ful, -ly, -able... every ending you need to understand thousands of words at once.