temperament

Inherited from Middle English temperament, borrowed from Middle French tempérament, from Latin temperāmentum.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛm.pə.ɹə.mənt/, /ˈtɛm.pɹə.mənt/, /ˈtɛm.pə.mənt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtɛm.pɚ.ə.mənt/, /ˈtɛm.pɹə.mənt/, /ˈtɛm.pɚ.mənt/^[1][2]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

temperament (countable and uncountable, plural temperaments)

1. A person's usual manner of thinking, behaving or reacting.
   • 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Happy Warrior Alfred E. Smith‎^[1], Houghton Mifflin, →OCLC, →OL, page 13:

     President Taft did not have the temperament either to dominate or to work with his Congress.

2. A tendency to become irritable or angry.
3. (music) The altering of certain intervals from their correct values in order to improve the moving from key to key.
4. (psychology) Individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes.
5. (obsolete) A moderate and proportionable mixture of elements or ingredients in a compound; the condition in which elements are mixed in their proper proportions.
   • 1624, John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVIII., in The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne, ed. Charles M. Coffin, New York: Modern Library (1952), pp. 442-444:

     If I will aske meere Philosophers, what the soule is, I shall finde amongst them, that will tell me, it is nothing, but the temperament and harmony, and just and equall composition of the Elements in the body, which produces all those faculties which we ascribe to the soule […]

6. (obsolete) Any state or condition as determined by the proportion of its ingredients or the manner in which they are mixed; consistence, composition; mixture.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “temperament”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

Borrowed from Latin temperāmentum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [təm.pə.ɾəˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [təm.pə.ɾəˈment]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [tem.pe.ɾaˈment]

temperament m (plural temperaments)

1. temperament

• “temperament” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “temperament”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “temperament”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025

From Latin temperāmentum.

• IPA^(key): [ˈtɛmpɛramɛnt]
• Rhymes: -amɛnt
• Hyphenation: tem‧pe‧ra‧ment

temperament m inan (relational adjective temperamentní)

1. (psychology) temperament, disposition

   Synonyms: povaha, letora, nátura

2. liveliness, vivacity, temper

   Synonym: živost

• “temperament”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “temperament”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “temperament”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Borrowed from Middle French tempérament, from Latin temperāmentum.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tem‧pe‧ra‧ment

temperament n (plural temperamenten, diminutive temperamentje n)

1. (psychology) the usual mood of a person, or typical manner of thinking, behaving, and acting; temperament, temper, mood

   Oorspronkelijk waren in de Griekse oudheid de temperamenten de naam voor vier persoonlijkheidstypen: het sanguïnische, flegmatische, cholerische en melancholische temperament.^Temperament

   Originally, in Greek antiquity, the temperaments were the names of the four personality types: the sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholy temperaments.

2. temperament: a tendency to become irritable or angry, temper
3. (music) temperament: a specific system of note pitches of a musical instrument

Borrowed from Italian temperamento.

• IPA^(key): /tɛm.pɛ.raˈmɛnt/

temperament m (plural temperamenti)

1. temperament, disposition

From Latin temperāmentum.

temperament n (definite singular temperamentet, indefinite plural temperament or temperamenter, definite plural temperamenta or temperamentene)

1. temperament
2. a temperamental nature

• temperamentsfull

• “temperament” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “temperament” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Latin temperāmentum.

temperament n (definite singular temperamentet, indefinite plural temperament, definite plural temperamenta)

1. temperament
2. a temperamental nature

• temperamentsfull

• “temperament” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from French tempérament.

• IPA^(key): /tɛm.pɛˈra.mɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -amɛnt
• Syllabification: tem‧pe‧ra‧ment

temperament m inan (diminutive temperamencik)

1. temperament, character

• temperament in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• temperament in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French tempérament, from Latin temperāmentum.

temperament n (plural temperamente)

1. temperament

Borrowed from German Temperament.

• IPA^(key): /temperǎment/
• Hyphenation: tem‧pe‧ra‧ment

temperàment m inan (Cyrillic spelling темпера̀мент)

1. (psychology) temperament

• “temperament”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025