propensity
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day
Merriam-Webster
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🗓️ 20 August 2024
⏱️ 1 minutes
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Summary
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 20, 2024 is:
propensity • \pruh-PENN-suh-tee\ • noun
A propensity is a strong natural tendency to do something.
// As a child, she had a strong propensity for mischief.
Examples:
"The work suggests that the propensity for the cleverest AI chatbots to go off the rails isn’t just a quirk that can be papered over with a few simple rules." — WIRED, 1 Aug. 2023
Did you know?
If you’re partial to picking synonyms of propensity, perhaps peruse the letter "p," which predominates for such words, in our pages. Proclivity, preference, penchant, and predilection all share with propensity the principal meaning of "a strong instinct or liking." Propensity comes from Latin prōpensus, a form of prōpendēre, a verb meaning "to incline" or "to hang down" (as pendulous things do). With that in mind, it’s perfectly plausible that leaning and inclination are as good synonyms of propensity as any of those "p"-words.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's Merriam-Webster's word of the day for August 20th. |
| 0:11.3 | Today's word is prop spelled PROP E N SITY. Propensity is a noun. A |
| 0:19.0 | propensity is a strong natural tendency to do something. Here's the word used in a sentence from Wired. |
| 0:25.0 | The work suggests that the propensity for the cleverest AI chatbots to go off the rails |
| 0:31.0 | isn't just a quirk that can be papered over with a few simple rules. |
| 0:36.0 | If you're partial to picking synonyms of the word propensity, |
| 0:41.0 | perhaps peruse the letter P, which predominates for such words in our pages. |
| 0:47.0 | Like proclivity, preference, pension, and predilection, they all share with propensity the principle meaning of a strong instinct or liking. |
| 0:56.0 | Propensity comes from the Latin word propensus from the verb meaning to incline or to hang down |
| 1:02.2 | as pendulous things do. With that in mind, it's perfectly plausible |
| 1:06.8 | that leaning and inclination are as good synonyms of propensity as any of those P words. With your word of the day |
| 1:15.1 | I'm Peter Sokolowski. Visit Marion Webster.com today for definitions, word play, and trending word lookups. |
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