7 letters · 8 points in Scrabble
noun slender stem-like structure by which some twining plants attach themselves to an object for support
originFrom Middle French tendrillon (“bud, shoot, cartilage”), perhaps a diminutive of tendron (“cartilage”), from Old French tendre (“soft”) (see tender (adjective)), or else from Latin tendere (“to stretch, extend”) (see tender (verb)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0