tendril

noun ten·dril \ ˈten-drəl \

|Updated on: 11 Aug 2018

Definition of tendril

1 : a leaf, stipule, or stem modified into a slender spirally coiling sensitive organ serving to attach a climbing plant to its support

2 : something suggestive of a tendril

creeping tendrils of fog

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tendriled

or tendrilled play \ˈten-drəld\ adjective

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tendrilous

play \ˈten-drə-ləs\ adjective

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Examples of tendril in a Sentence

A few tendrils of hair framed her face.

Recent Examples of tendril from the Web

Meanwhile, back stateside on the West Coast, Selena Gomez paired Oscar de la Renta’s toile two-piece ensemble with a flyaway updo that showcased how breezy bangs and loose tendrils are the solution to heat-proof glamour.

— Vogue, "The 10 Best Beauty Looks: Week of July 1, 2018," 3 July 2018
This charge eventually finds a path to the ground: a narrow channel of conductive air extending downward from the cloud that meets other delicate electrical tendrils snaking up from the ground.

— helen czerski, WSJ, "A Crash Course in Summer Thunderstorms," 27 June 2018
The tendrils that clung to the opposite wall had been a gift in the opposite direction.

— eric boodman, STAT, "It’s not ‘all in your head’: When other doctors give up on patients, a boundary-breaking neurologist treats them," 19 June 2018
My favorite is June, a dead girl who can shoot out spiky tendrils, turn invisible, and even throw her decapitated head at opponents.

— andrew webster, The Verge, "Pocket Rumble for the Nintendo Switch channels the best portable fighters," 6 July 2018
Cassius’ thrilling escape from drudgery and poverty reveals itself as simply a more insidious form of entrapment, one that sends poisonous tendrils into every corner of his life.

— justin chang, latimes.com, "Review: Boots Riley's 'Sorry to Bother You' is an arrestingly surreal satire on class rage and cultural identity," 5 July 2018
Camille’s story, told through Adams’s hesitant physicality—and behind a curtain of long strawberry-blonde hair, so alive its tendrils seem to instinctively curl around her—is one of barely maintained survival.

— sonia saraiya, HWD, "Sharp Objects Is Stunning, Raw, and Violently Beautiful," 5 July 2018
Little sun could reach anything trying to grow beneath its ever-reaching tendrils.

— kenneth setzer, miamiherald, "Need to screen off your neighbors? Here's how to grow a green privacy barrier," 27 June 2018
Fenty Beauty, two tendrils, and a pope hat walked into the Met Gala.

— kathleen hou, The Cut, "The Best (and Worst) Met Gala Beauty Looks," 7 May 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'tendril.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Illustration of tendril

Origin and Etymology of tendril

probably modification of Middle French tendron bud, cartilage, alteration of Old French tenrum, from Vulgar Latin *tenerumen, from Latin tener tender — more at ¹tender

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1538

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year