an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others; "he had an inclination to give up too easily"; "a tendency to be too strict"
Used in a Sentence
tendency
How to use tendency in a sentence. Example sentences and definitions for tendency.
Editorial note
"Why do techies have such a tendency to phrase "I don't like x" as "It is wrong to use x".
Examples14
Definitions4
Parts of speech1
Quick take
an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others; "he had an inclination to give up too easily"; "a tendency to be too strict"
Meaning at a glance
The clearest senses and uses of tendency gathered in one view.
an inclination to do something; "he felt leanings toward frivolity"
a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect; "the alkaline inclination of the local waters"; "fabric with a tendency to shrink"
Definitions
Core meanings and parts of speech for tendency.
noun
an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others; "he had an inclination to give up too easily"; "a tendency to be too strict"
See also: inclination, disposition
noun
an inclination to do something; "he felt leanings toward frivolity"
See also: leaning, propensity
noun
a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect; "the alkaline inclination of the local waters"; "fabric with a tendency to shrink"
See also: inclination
noun
a general direction in which something tends to move; "the shoreward tendency of the current"; "the trend of the stock market"
See also: trend
Example sentences
"Why do techies have such a tendency to phrase "I don't like x" as "It is wrong to use x".
But the zero has a dangerous tendency to climb.
I think that we need to take away sharp knifes from people who have a tendency to cut themselves.
Off topic, but I dislike this perl/ruby tendency of calling hash tables hashes.
Easy to spot in the work place, remotely not so much...Dale has a quite common tendency for diurnal drift - a 25 hour cycle.
As we all know, when a complex system includes information in more than one place, the two have a tendency to get out of sync.
I expect Tim Cook to keep Apple in a very competitive place while he's around, but companies have a tendency to lose their way.
The hiring committees recognize this tendency to reject qualified candidates and won't count you out after one try.
Outspoken misanthrope with poor social skills and a tendency towards an absolutist black/white view of the world dislikes social networking?
People have a tendency to believe anything that someone in a lab coat says, especially if it supports their point of view or anecdotal experience.
This C&D demonstrates a rather alarming ignorance about Bitcoin, and an even more alarming tendency of modern enforcement agencies to halt any activity they don't understand.
The idea here is to spend the most time with candidates who might potentially work out and wasting as little time as possible on those that probably won't;- the problem with these kinds of whiteboard coding problems is that the tendency is for interviewers to think the problem needs to be "hard".
I see groups of people socialising and talking - if someone is by themselves then their phone can provide some distraction/semblance of "company".There's also a tendency for us techy types to get caught in our own little bubble - I get my news from HN Reddit and Twitter, so my view on how people use these services is clouded.
"Which is to say, if I hear someone apologizing for the weather, one likely presumption would be that they're just assuming fault as a matter of etiquette, or some latent self-hating tendency... but another, more interesting, possibility is that they're apologizing for not having gotten around to the step in their world domination plans where they build a global climate-regulation system yet. Because they would if they could, they will as soon as they can, and it's only their own laziness and ignorance of proper power/wealth/intelligence-bootstrapping methods preventing them from being there already.
Frequently asked questions
Short answers drawn from the clearest meanings and examples for this word.
How do you use tendency in a sentence?
"Why do techies have such a tendency to phrase "I don't like x" as "It is wrong to use x".
What does tendency mean?
an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others; "he had an inclination to give up too easily"; "a tendency to be too strict"
What part of speech is tendency?
tendency is commonly used as noun.