Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Movement or prevailing movement in a given direction: observed the tendency of the wind; the shoreward tendency of the current.
- n. A characteristic likelihood: fabric that has a tendency to wrinkle.
- n. A predisposition to think, act, behave, or proceed in a particular way.
- n. An implicit direction or purpose: not openly liberal, but that is the tendency of the book.
- n. An implicit point of view in written or spoken matter; a bias.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Movement, or inclination to move, in some particular direction or toward some end or purpose; bent, leaning, or inclination toward some object, effect, or result; inclining or contributing influence.
- n. Synonyms Propensity, Inclination, etc. (see bent), drift, direction, bearing.
Wiktionary
- n. a likelihood of behaving in a particular way or going in a particular direction; a tending toward.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Direction or course toward any place, object, effect, or result; drift; causal or efficient influence to bring about an effect or result.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect
- n. an inclination to do something
- n. a general direction in which something tends to move
- n. an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others
Etymologies
- Ultimately from the Latin tendere / tendō. (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin tendentia, from Latin tendēns, tendent-, present participle of tendere, to tend; see tend1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Your expression, "and tends to depart in a slight degree," I think hardly grammatical; a _tendency_ to depart cannot very well be said to be in a slight degree; a _departure_ can, but a tendency must be either a _slight tendency_ or a _strong tendency_; the degree to which the departure may reach must depend on favourable or unfavourable causes in addition to the tendency itself.”
“Mr. LaHood, in turn, has been criticized by some senior FAA officials for what they described as a tendency to micromanage FAA decisions.”
The Wall Street Journal: FAA Chief's Arrest Leaves Agency in Limbo
“Your tendency is then to play a little safer, and that's not the way to play this game. '”
“Another tendency is the internationalization of the family, with branches of the same clan living in the United States and Canada, and establishing business operations with Nafta coverage.”
“We need not go far to find how deeply rooted this tendency is and to what exaggerations it will sometimes lead.”
“Such a tendency is also revealed in Figure 1, where the yen became stronger against the dollar over the period, while the price level in the U.S. rose in relation to the”
“An International Monetary Fund official Friday struck back at what he called a tendency in Malawi to scapegoat the IMF and the donor community for problems which are of the country's own making.”
“He warned about what he described as the tendency of many countries to live beyond the level of development of their economies, and he called on the”
“I regret to say that at the present time the tendency is a trifle different.”
“Some or other tendency is always discernible, in verse as much as in prose, even if it does no more than determine the form and the choice of imagery.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tendency’.
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Yazhinni Spelling bee
tongue, stallion, scruple, salinity, schedule, rouge, populist, Permian, perspire, pasteurize, multitude, mournful and 227 more...
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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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the brothers
factotem, extrapolation, antinomy, antenome, pusillanimous, capons, caftan, pejorative, cropper, cowl, perfidious, fichu and 138 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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GRE AWA
escalating, vehement, vehemence, hostility, paparazzi, regime, irrespective, scoop, exaggerated, overblown, unfetter, scrupulous and 272 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Jacqueline's Words
glittery, horny, amazing, wanderlust, forlorn, lustily, nonchalant, cool, passive, submissive, roundabout, carousel and 558 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Hilary's List
Just a list of words I like
wellspring, mystery, wonderment, intrinsic, artisan, enchantment, magic, transience, incomplete, impermanent, imperfect, resonance and 163 more...
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2007bee-r02
2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Round 2
query, tendency, danceable, parachute, malignant, brutal, humanely, lyrically, deductible, shindig, gravel, embroidered and 274 more...
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Tunie: One Week
I always forget that this humorous song is actually about a fight.
It's been one week since you looked at me
Cocked your head to the side and said "I'm angry"
Five days s...home, sorry, smile, blame, living room, tendency, funeral, laugh, wrong, iron, nub, better and 14 more...
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rivets's Words
epopt, bifurcated, ptilota, serendipity, philprogenitive, cardoon, scorzonera, salsify, valetudinarianism, capercailie, hornpipe, strathspey and 52 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tendency.
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