Definitions

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

  • noun Prejudice or bias in favor of something.
  • noun A special fondness; a predilection: synonym: predilection.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or character of being partial.
  • noun A special fondness; a stronger inclination to one person or thing than to others: with to or for: as, a partiality for poetry or painting.
  • noun A party; faction.
  • noun Synonyms Favoritism, unfairness
  • noun Liking, predilection, leaning, fancy.

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

  • noun The quality or state of being partial; inclination to favor one party, or one side of a question, more than the other; undue bias of mind.
  • noun A predilection or inclination to one thing rather than to others; special taste or liking.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Preference, bias in favor of, tendency.

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

  • noun an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives
  • noun a predisposition to like something

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This generous assistant was a disbanded officer, of a good family and fair reputation; who, by what we call the partiality of fortune, to avoid censuring the iniquities of the times, wanted even a plain suit of clothes to make a decent appearance at the castle.

    Lives of the Poets, Volume 1 Samuel Johnson 1746

  • Oh give it s rest - your partiality is overcoming your intelligence.

    Remember, David Cameron has done nothing wrong - "I was just following the rules" Norfolk Blogger 2009

  • Calvinistic; in partiality for mercy, even to the neglect of justice, he was Socinian; but we may speak of him as at once orthodox and liberal, devout and humanitarian; to whom the kingdom of heaven came without observation, and was not declared in the usual phrases, but whose "CALLING was of God."

    Character and Death of Abraham Lincoln 1865

  • Tancred, his partiality is encountered by the partiality of

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • This clearly demonstrates that the BBC has its own political agenda, in breach of partiality, which is most alarming.

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2009

  • Oxford; a good sort of a man, though most ridiculously warped in his political principles; but his partiality is the less offensive, as it never appears in the stile of scurrility and abuse.

    The Expedition of Humphry Clinker 2004

  • Gibbon’s inference may appear stronger than the text will warrant, yet it is difficult, after reading the passages, to dismiss all suspicion of partiality from the mind. —

    The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206

  • Look there, and tell me, without partiality, which is the handsomest of those two that lie asleep, the young man or the young lady. '

    Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights E. Dixon

  • Look on that bed, and tell me, without partiality, which is the handsomest of those two who lie there asleep, the young man or the young lady.

    The Arabian Nights Entertainments - Volume 01 Anonymous

  • There was nothing like blue water to this sailor's wife, whose heart had been upon it for so many anxious months; the extravagance of her partiality was the joke of husband and friends against her.

    Sisters Ada Cambridge 1885

Comments

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  • Bribery (suapan, sogokan) deprives others of justice, which is an offense against the character of God, who is “God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality (sikap memihak) nor takes a bribe” Deuteronomy 10:17 - ODB July 27, 2011

    July 27, 2011