attitude
Americannoun
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attitudes
plural
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manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, especially of the mind.
a negative attitude; group attitudes.
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position or posture of the body appropriate to or expressive of an action, emotion, etc..
a threatening attitude; a relaxed attitude.
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Aeronautics. the inclination of the three principal axes of an aircraft relative to the wind, to the ground, etc.
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Ballet. a pose in which the dancer stands on one leg, the other bent behind.
noun
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the way a person views something or tends to behave towards it, often in an evaluative way
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a theatrical pose created for effect (esp in the phrase strike an attitude )
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a position of the body indicating mood or emotion
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informal a hostile manner
don't give me attitude, my girl
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the orientation of an aircraft's axes in relation to some plane, esp the horizontal See also axis 1
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the orientation of a spacecraft in relation to its direction of motion
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ballet a classical position in which the body is upright and one leg raised and bent behind
Synonym Usage
See position.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of attitude
First recorded in 1660–70; from French, from Italian attitudine, from Late Latin aptitūdini- (stem of aptitūdō ); see aptitude
Explanation
An attitude is somewhere between a belief, a stance, a mood, and a pose. If you've got an attitude about something, it can be hard to change it because you think you're right. You'll often hear Happy Hour referred to as "Attitude Adjustment Hour," because cheap drinks are one of the best ways to change your attitude. If you're in a bad mood, cocktails can make it better (or worse). An attitude is a way of thinking that you can express just by standing a certain way. For example, putting your hands on your hips and rolling your eyes expresses one kind of attitude, while kneeling with your palms together expresses a very different one.
Vocabulary lists containing attitude
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Argumentative Writing, List 1
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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.
See Examples For:
His general attitude about wellness largely boils down to the single best piece of advice he ever received, from Pep Guardiola.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
We don’t have the opportunity to just cast aside potential allies because of some twisted moral-purity attitude that we have.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026
Roman's attitude control system first points the spacecraft toward the correct area of the sky.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026
“But even the attitude. Just the attitude — like he’s having fun up there. First year or even before, he just kept getting worse and worse every year.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
He still had the same snarky attitude as when he had impersonated Brer, and it didn’t irritate me any less.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Which means these attitudes are not just confined to dedicated craft-snarking spaces.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026
But experts say Malaysian attitudes towards migrants, particularly the Rohingya, soured during the Covid-19 pandemic when they became targets of misinformation about the disease.
From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026
Researcher and performer Komita Dhanda says changing attitudes to public spaces are also driving the decline.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
And not because they exude obnoxious “The Best or Nothing” and “The Ultimate Driving Machine” Teutonic attitudes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
Nine fearsome, ugly, half-naked, fifty-feet-long brutes lay sprawled over the ground in various grotesque attitudes of sleep, and the sound of their snoring was indeed like gunfire in a battle.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
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.
