propensity

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from New Latin prōpensitās. By surface analysis, propense (“inclined, disposed”) +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈpɛnsɪti/

• Audio (California, Santa Clara):

  (file)

Noun

propensity (countable and uncountable, plural propensities)

1. An inclination, disposition, tendency, preference, or attraction.

   He has a propensity for lengthy discussions of certain favorite topics.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Last Chapter”, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 326:

     I must own they do dearly delight in a judgment; and sorry am I that I cannot gratify this laudable propensity by specifying some peculiar evil incurred by Mr. Delawarr's ambition, or Lady Etheringhame's vanity.

   • 1902, William James, “Lecture I”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, that, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of those religious propensities.

   • 1988, Douglas Adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, William Heinemann Ltd, page 29:

     He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving.

   • 2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193:

     Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.

Synonyms

• proclivity, propension, predilection, see also Thesaurus:predilection

Related terms

• propense
• propend

Translations

tendency

• Arabic: ميل
• Azerbaijani: meyil (az)
• Bulgarian: склонност (bg) f (sklonnost), тенденция (bg) f (tendencija)
• Catalan: propensió f
• Danish: tilbøjelighed c, tendens c
• Dutch: neiging (nl), beheptheid, geneigdheid (nl)
• Finnish: taipumus (fi)
• French: propension (fr) f, tendance (fr) f
• Galician: propensión f
• Georgian: მიდრეკილება (midreḳileba)
• German: Neigung (de) f, Tendenz (de) f
• Greek: κλίση (el) f (klísi), ροπή (el) f (ropí), τάση (el) f (tási)
• Hindi: प्रवृत्ति (hi) m (pravŕtti)
• Hungarian: hajlam (hu)
• Icelandic: tilhneigingu
• Italian: propensione (it) f, tendenza (it) f, inclinazione (it) f
• Japanese: 傾向 (ja) (keikou), 性向 (ja) (seikou)
• Latin: prōpensiō f
• Macedonian: скло́ност f (sklónost)
• Malayalam: പ്രവണത (ml) (pravaṇata)
• Norwegian: tilbøyelighet
• Occitan: propension (oc) f, tendéncia (oc) f, predileccion (oc) f
• Persian: میل (fa) (meyl), گرایش (fa) (gerâyeš)
• Polish: skłonność (pl) f
• Portuguese: propensão (pt) f, tendência (pt) f, inclinação (pt) f, predisposição f, predileção (pt) f
• Romanian: predilecție (ro) f, tendință (ro) f
• Russian: скло́нность (ru) (sklónnostʹ)
• Spanish: propensión (es) f, inclinación (es) f
• Swedish: benägenhet (sv), böjelse (sv), tendens (sv), förkärlek (sv)
• Turkish: eğilim (tr), meyelan (tr), meyil (tr), temayül (tr)
• Ukrainian: схильність f (sxylʹnistʹ)