Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A desire to know or learn.
  • noun A desire to know about people or things that do not concern one; nosiness.
  • noun An object that arouses interest, as by being novel or extraordinary.
  • noun A strange or odd aspect.
  • noun Archaic Fastidiousness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Carefulness; nicety; delicacy; fastidiousness; scrupulous care.
  • noun Accuracy; exactness; nice performance.
  • noun Curious arrangement; singular or artful performance.
  • noun Extravagantly minute investigation.
  • noun Fancifulness; extravagance; a curious or fanciful subject.
  • noun The desire to see or learn something that is new, strange, or unknown; inquisitiveness.
  • noun An object of interest or inquisitiveness; that which excites a desire of seeing or deserves to be seen, as novel or extraordinary; something rare or strange.
  • noun Synonyms. Phenomenon, marvel, wonder, sight, rarity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The state or quality or being curious; nicety; accuracy; exactness; elaboration.
  • noun Disposition to inquire, investigate, or seek after knowledge; a desire to gratify the mind with new information or objects of interest; inquisitiveness.
  • noun That which is curious, or fitted to excite or reward attention.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting
  • noun a state in which you want to learn more about something

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English curiosite, from Old French, from Latin cūriōsitās, from cūriōsus, inquisitive; see curious.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman curiouseté, from Latin cūriōsitātem, from cūriōsus.

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