Dictionary entry details
• TENDENCY (noun)
Meaning:
An attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Synonyms:
inclination; tendency; disposition
Context examples:
he had an inclination to give up too easily / a tendency to be too strict
Hypernyms ("tendency" is a kind of...):
attitude; mental attitude (a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions to act in certain ways)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tendency"):
literalism (a disposition to interpret statements in their literal sense)
perseveration (the tendency for a memory or idea to persist or recur without any apparent stimulus for it)
predisposition (an inclination beforehand to interpret statements in a particular way)
favor; favour (an inclination to approve)
disapproval; disfavor; disfavour; dislike (an inclination to withhold approval from some person or group)
partiality; partisanship (an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives)
bent; set (a relatively permanent inclination to react in a particular way)
leaning; proclivity; propensity (a natural inclination)
favoritism; favouritism (an inclination to favor some person or group)
sympathy; understanding (an inclination to support or be loyal to or to agree with an opinion)
devices (an inclination or desire; used in the plural in the phrase 'left to your own devices')
denominationalism (the tendency, in Protestantism, to separate into religious denominations or to advocate such separations)
Call (a special disposition (as if from a divine source) to pursue a particular course)
drift; movement; trend (a general tendency to change (as of opinion))
direction (a general course along which something has a tendency to develop)
impartiality; nonpartisanship (an inclination to weigh both views or opinions equally)
Meaning:
An inclination to do something
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Synonyms:
propensity; leaning; tendency
Context example:
he felt leanings toward frivolity
Hypernyms ("tendency" is a kind of...):
inclination (that toward which you are inclined to feel a liking)
Meaning:
A characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Synonyms:
tendency; inclination
Context examples:
the alkaline inclination of the local waters / fabric with a tendency to shrink
Hypernyms ("tendency" is a kind of...):
disposition (a natural or acquired habit or characteristic tendency in a person or thing)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tendency"):
buoyancy (the tendency to float in water or other liquid)
electronegativity; negativity ((chemistry) the tendency of an atom or radical to attract electrons in the formation of an ionic bond)
stainability ((cytology) the capacity of cells or cell parts to stain specifically with certain dyes)
desire (an inclination to want things)
Meaning:
A general direction in which something tends to move
Classified under:
Nouns denoting spatial position
Synonyms:
trend; tendency
Context examples:
the shoreward tendency of the current / the trend of the stock market
Hypernyms ("tendency" is a kind of...):
direction; way (a line leading to a place or point)
