TENDENCY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tendency mean? 

• TENDENCY (noun)
  The noun TENDENCY has 4 senses:

1. an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others

2. an inclination to do something

3. a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect

4. a general direction in which something tends to move

  Familiarity information: TENDENCY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TENDENCY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

disposition; inclination; tendency

Context example:

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"):

impartiality; nonpartisanship (an inclination to weigh both views or opinions equally)

partiality; partisanship (an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives)

disapproval; disfavor; disfavour; dislike (an inclination to withhold approval from some person or group)

favor; favour (an inclination to approve)

predisposition (an inclination beforehand to interpret statements in a particular way)

perseveration (the tendency for a memory or idea to persist or recur without any apparent stimulus for it)

literalism (a disposition to interpret statements in their literal sense)

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)

Derivation:

tend (have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined)

tendencious; tendentious (having or marked by a strong tendency especially a controversial one)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An inclination to do something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

leaning; propensity; 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)

Derivation:

tend (have a tendency or disposition to do or be something; be inclined)

Sense 3

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:

inclination; tendency

Context example:

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)

heterosis; hybrid vigor ((genetics) the tendency of a crossbred organism to have qualities superior to those of either parent)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A general direction in which something tends to move

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

tendency; trend

Context example:

the trend of the stock market

Hypernyms ("tendency" is a kind of...):

direction; way (a line leading to a place or point)

 Context examples 

It occurs predominantly in adults who use tobacco and alcohol and has a tendency to metastasize early to lymph nodes.

(Lip and Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

The diseases range from rare dominant cancer family syndrome to familial tendencies in which low-penetrance genes may interact with other genes or environmental factors to induce cancer.

(Genetic Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

There was never much laughing in his presence; or, if there is any difference, it is not more, I think, than such an absence has a tendency to produce at first.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The planet is also much further away from its stars than any other circumbinary planet, breaking with the tendency for circumbinary planets to have close-in orbits.

(New Planet Is Largest Discovered That Orbits Two Suns, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The tendency of some treatments to cause damage to the nervous system.

(Neurotoxicity, NCI Dictionary)

It is characterized by a tendency to metastasize early to the lymph nodes.

(Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma, NCI Thesaurus)

The tendency to believe that there is good in everything and to have positive thoughts about most things that happen.

(Optimism, NCI Dictionary)

Marked by a tendency to spread, especially into healthy surrounding tissue.

(Invasive, NCI Thesaurus)

Lucy here looked up; but Elinor was careful in guarding her countenance from every expression that could give her words a suspicious tendency.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

A measure of the correlation of two variables X and Y measured on the same object or organism, that is, a measure of the tendency of the variables to increase or decrease together.

(Pearson Correlation Coefficient, NCI Thesaurus)