inclination

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of inclining or the state of being inclined; a bend or tilt: The inclination of the child's head suggested sleep.
2. n. A deviation or the degree of deviation from the horizontal or vertical; a slant: the steep inclination of a roof.
3. n. An inclined surface; a slope.
4. n. A tendency toward a certain condition or character: the alkaline inclination of the local waters.
5. n. A characteristic disposition to do, prefer, or favor one thing rather than another; a propensity: "I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves” ( Benjamin Franklin). See Synonyms at tendency.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of inclining, or the state of being inclined; a leaning; any deviation from a given direction or position.
2. n. In geometry and mech., the mutual approach, tendency, or leaning of two bodies, lines, or planes toward each other, so as to make an angle at the point where they meet, or where their lines of direction meet. This angle is called the angle of inclination.
3. n. The angle which a line or plane makes with the horizon; declivity. In gunnery inclination is the elevation or depression of the axis of a piece above or below a horizontal plane passing through the axis of the trunnions, supposed to be horizontal.
4. n. An inclined surface; a slope or declivity, as of land.
5. n. A set or bent of the mind or will; a disposition more favorable to one thing or person than to another; a leaning, liking, or preference: as, an inclination for poetry; a strong inclination toward law.
6. n. A person for whom or a thing for which one has a liking or preference.
7. n. In Greek and Latin grammar, same as enclisis.

Wiktionary

1. n. A physical tilt or bend
2. n. A slant or slope
3. n. A mental tendency
4. n. The angle of intersection of a reference plane

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of inclining, or state of being inclined; a leaning.
2. n. A direction or tendency from the true vertical or horizontal direction.
3. n. A tendency towards another body or point.
4. n. The angle made by two lines or planes
5. n. A leaning or tendency of the mind, feelings, preferences, or will; propensity; a disposition more favorable to one thing than to another; favor; desire; love.
6. n. A person or thing loved or admired.
7. n. Decantation, or tipping for pouring.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (physics) the angle that a magnetic needle makes with the plane of the horizon
2. n. the act of inclining; bending forward
3. n. a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect
4. n. (astronomy) the angle between the plane of the orbit and the plane of the ecliptic stated in degrees
5. n. the property possessed by a line or surface that departs from the vertical
6. n. that toward which you are inclined to feel a liking
7. n. an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others
8. n. (geometry) the angle formed by the x-axis and a given line (measured counterclockwise from the positive half of the x-axis)