temperament

Temperament is the way you tend to behave or the types of emotions you tend to exhibit.

(noun)

When a person is calm and collected and doesn't tend to get mad easily, this is an example of a person with a calm temperament.

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See temperament in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

  1. Obsolete the act or an instance of tempering; proportionate mixture or balance of ingredients
  2. in medieval physiology, any of the four conditions of body and mind, the sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric (or bilious), and melancholic temperaments, attributed to an excess of one of the four corresponding humors
  3. one's customary frame of mind or natural disposition; nature: a man of even temperament
  4. a nature that is excitable, moody, capricious, volatile, etc.: the temperament of a prima donna
  5. Obsolete
    1. climate
    2. temperature
  6. Music a system of adjustment of the intervals between the tones of an instrument of fixed intonation: it may be , in which the intervals are set exactly according to theory, or , as in a piano, in which the pitch of the tones is slightly adjusted to make them suitable for all keys

Origin: ME < L temperamentum, proper mixing < temperare: see temper

See temperament in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. a. The manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting characteristic of a specific person: a nervous temperament. See Synonyms at disposition.
    b. The distinguishing mental and physical characteristics of a human according to medieval physiology, resulting from dominance of one of the four humors.
  2. Excessive irritability or sensitiveness: an actor with too much temperament.
  3. Music Equal temperament.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English

Origin: , from Latin temperāmentum

Origin: , from temperāre, to temper; see temper

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