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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The AP English Exam: The Language of the Test
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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:
On TikTok and Instagram, a person's "aura" alludes to their style or attitude, with "100% aura" high praise for the most effortlessly cool persona.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
“This reflects a more mature and pragmatic consumer attitude among today’s young people,” Zhu said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Yet his attitude of constant haggling over everything that isn’t nailed down, and some things that were supposed to be, isn’t helpful.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
On a team with 11 seniors, Seung is fitting right in with a fearless attitude and competitive drive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
Then, with as much New York City attitude as she could muster, she added, “They call me Charlotte 2.0.”
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
The Pew Research Center released a report in 2024 showing that these so-called opt-in surveys did a particularly bad job of capturing the attitudes of adults under 30 and Latino adults.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
On the other hand, there’s nothing especially mysterious about those attitudes.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Jehanno believes these trends reflect a lasting change in attitudes.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Catherine Marchant, CEO of Impact Family Services in South Tyneside, said young people could become unaware of abuse in real life if violent misogynistic attitudes were normalised in schools and on social media.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
"I don't have a bad attitude—" "—is the kind of thing that people with bad attitudes say."
From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan
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.
