propensity
Americannoun
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a natural inclination or tendency.
a propensity to drink too much.
- Synonyms:
- proclivity, penchant, disposition, leaning, bent
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Obsolete. favorable disposition or partiality.
noun
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a natural tendency or disposition
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obsolete partiality
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of propensity
Compare meaning
How does propensity compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A propensity is a natural tendency to behave in a certain way. We all have propensities — things we tend to do. Dogs have a propensity to bark, and many people have a propensity for getting annoyed by it. If you have a propensity for something, then it's something that comes naturally to you or something you just do a lot. Some people have a propensity to laugh. Other people have a propensity for making others laugh, or for being generous, or for getting angry. It's hard to change your propensities. Sometimes a propensity is a bad thing, as in a criminal with a propensity for theft or murder.
Vocabulary lists containing propensity
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Grade 11, List 4
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The Scarlet Letter
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The parameter β1 was called the Marginal Propensity to Consume in Macroeconomics Principles.
From Textbooks • Nov. 29, 2017
His Countenance is higher coloured than in Health; he has a Propensity to sleep, but attended with Confusion and without Refreshment, and has sometimes an extraordinary Appetite.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
Propensity to commerce among the people of Suse.
From An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa by Jackson, James Grey
There have been Instances of their Propensity to a heavy kind of Drowsiness at this Time; for perfect refreshing Sleep advances but slowly after this Disease.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
What is further very extraordinary in this Work, is, that the Persons are all of them laudable, and their Misfortunes arise rather from unguarded Virtue than Propensity to Vice.
From The Spectator, Volume 2. by Addison, Joseph
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
