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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

caress.

An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kəˈɹɛs/
  1. An act of endearment; any act or expression of affection; an embracing, or touching, with tenderness.

  2. A gentle stroking or rubbing.

Where this word comes from

From French caresse, from Italian carezza (“dear”), from Latin cārus (“dear”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂-, akin to Sanskrit काम (kāma, “love”). Doublet of karezza.

verb/kəˈɹɛs/
  1. To touch or kiss lovingly; to fondle.

    transitive
    She loves being caressed by her boyfriend.
  2. To affect as if with a caress.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From French caresse, from Italian carezza (“dear”), from Latin cārus (“dear”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂-, akin to Sanskrit काम (kāma, “love”). Doublet of karezza.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.