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.
-
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:
Our critic noted, “Despite a sea between them literally and metaphorically, Europe and the Americas shared a common imagination, a curiosity to explain the unknown, and a desire to make the mystical beautiful.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
Despite the curiosity generated by his name, local media noted that Hitler Guesclin Alba Sánchez had been elected mayor of Yúngar in 2018.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
The officer told the investigator that he did several searches out of personal curiosity, but said home addresses and vehicle information for the other employees were part of threat assessments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
An insatiable curiosity about the world and the principles by which it operates, a hunger to know the mysteries of nature and grasp the secrets of the cosmos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
I get that it’s rude to spy, but curiosity gets the better of me.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
First, he is showing us what he jokingly calls his "minimalist executive suite" where he is surrounded by huge piles of gifts and curiosities, which he is sent every day by fans.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
Jenkin puts together his bespoke films like tactile, fragile curiosities — it’s as if the battered reels have been fished out of the water, their origin unknown.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
"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
Mozart, as well as being intrigued by the hidden curiosities and mystical secrets of Freemasonry, unashamedly celebrated in The Magic Flute, was fascinated by the supernatural, and by what we would call psychological motive.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
