Tendency

How to spell tendency

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce tendency

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tendency mean?

1. nounAn inclination or general disposition to behave, act, or develop in a particular way.

Tendency in a sentence

• He has a tendency to overspend at the end of every month.

• The report noted a worrying tendency for costs to rise after each quarter.

Where does tendency come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb tendere, which literally meant 'to stretch' or 'to extend', and from there developed the figurative sense of leaning or inclining toward something. From tendere came the medieval Latin tendentia, meaning an inclination or a leaning, and English adopted the word in the early 1600s to describe a natural disposition to act or move in a particular direction. The same tendere root quietly underlies a whole family of common English words, including 'tense', 'extend', 'attend', and 'intend', all of which carry that idea of stretching or directing toward a point. The spelling trap lives in the unstressed middle and ending: the second vowel is a faint schwa, and writers often reach for the more familiar '-ancy' ending, producing the wrong 'tendancy'. Keeping the verb 'tend' clearly in mind helps fix the correct '-ency' tail.

How the word is built

• tend (from Latin tendere: to stretch, to lean toward)
• -ency (noun suffix meaning state or quality)