curiosity
Americannoun
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curiosities
plural
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the desire to learn or know about anything; inquisitiveness.
The lesson provoked their curiosity about the natural world.
She feels that tolerance is fed by knowledge, an open mind, and curiosity about others.
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a curious, rare, or novel thing.
Exhibits on display will include such curiosities as preserved smells, infrared briefcases, and cameras hidden in coats.
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a strange, curious, or interesting quality or feature.
How bankers from Nova Scotia set up in the Caribbean in the 1880s is a curiosity of financial history.
One of the human brain's many curiosities is its tendency to see faces in abstract shapes.
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Archaic. carefulness; fastidiousness.
idioms
noun
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an eager desire to know; inquisitiveness
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the quality of being curious; strangeness
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( as modifier )
the ring had curiosity value only
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something strange or fascinating
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a rare or strange object; curio
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obsolete fastidiousness
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of curiosity
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English curiosite, either from Anglo-French or directly from Latin cūriōsitās, from cūriōs(us) curious + -itās -ity
Explanation
Curiosity is the urge you feel to know more about something. If you find a diary in a coffee shop, curiosity will make you want to look inside — but respect for the writer's privacy may convince you not to. Curiosity is the state of being curious: inquisitive, wondering, ready to poke around and figure something out. The word used to mean "very, very careful," and only in the last few hundred years turned into a word expressing the desire to know more. Maybe that's because when you're poking around in secret business, you need to be very, very careful. We also call weird things curiosities, like a phone shaped like a duck, or a shark in a jar.
Vocabulary lists containing curiosity
"Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto
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"LAFFF"
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We Were Liars
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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:
“Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor,” the posts said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
And the people making the four-part “O.J. Unseen”—which includes previously unreleased footage from the older show, and the making of that show—know that the same curiosity exists today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Weber agrees: "This all started out with a curiosity to see if snakes are 'handed'. It was exciting to follow it to deep insights about their evolution."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 1, 2026
Zhu sought out films which touch on the era-defining event, but neither epic romance Summer Palace nor the secretly filmed gay drama Lan Yu could satisfy her curiosity.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Leonardo da Vinci led a life of relentless curiosity.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
"Until relatively recently, this subset of igneous rocks were mere curiosities," said Gibson.
From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026
For a variety of reasons, not least because people have questions, curiosities, comparisons and resentments.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 13, 2026
Well, Wild London is abundant with animal curiosities: from pigeons hopping on to the Hammersmith and City line to a snake colony by a canal.
From BBC ● Dec. 18, 2025
In a preface, the film director Guillermo del Toro likens this collection to early modern cabinets of curiosities, whose juxtapositions of natural and artificial objects were meant to expose a hidden order of existence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025
Among Aspero’s many curiosities, Willey and Corbett noted, were a half-dozen mounds, some of them nearly fifteen feet tall.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
