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
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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:
Roman's attitude control system first points the spacecraft toward the correct area of the sky.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026
Ericka at first takes only a nominally enthusiastic attitude toward vying for the crown, and she’s not particularly antipathetic to Paulina either—at least until she witnesses Paulina’s cruel and domineering behavior toward her fellow students.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 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
I spent many years working with churches in West Germany and later in Germany, and I saw a very different attitude toward government assistance.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 26, 2026
“What?” said Estella, preserving her attitude of indifference as she leaned against the great chimney-piece and only moving her eyes; “do you reproach me for being cold? You?”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
While the consumption of dog and cat meat remains more common in Vietnam than other Asian countries, campaigners say attitudes are changing.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
And Ms. Bioh has the girls’ attitudes to her take an implausibly abrupt turn from sycophancy to snickering mockery when Ericka exposes the hollowness of her pretensions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Irish public opinion has been strongly pro-Palestinian for decades, partly from a sense of historical identification and deeply ingrained anti-colonial or anti-imperialist attitudes.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Mike Madrid, a political consultant and expert on Latino voting patterns, cautioned against viewing divergent Latino political attitudes as driven predominantly by gender.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
Given the later attitudes of Odessa, all these theories are probably true.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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.
