Webster's English Dictionary

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tendency

ten.den.cy \'ten-d*n-se-\ n [ML tendentia, fr. L tendent-, tendens, prp. of 
   tendere] 1a1: direction or approach toward a place, object, effect, or 
   limit  1a2: BIAS, INCLINATION  1b: a proneness to a particular kind of 
   thought or action : PROPENSITY  2a: the purposeful trend of something 
   written or said : AIM  2b: deliberate but direct advocacy  mean movement in 
   a particular direction. TENDENCY implies a driving force sending a person 
   or thing in a given direction; TREND implies a direction maintained in 
   spite of minor irregularities or windings and more subject to change than 
   TENDENCY; DRIFT suggests a tendency influenced by wind or current, or it 
   may apply to an underlying inferred meaning; TENOR is close to the latter 
   sense of DRIFT but suggests more clarity or definiteness; CURRENT implies a 
   clearly defined but not necessarily unalterable direction or tendency SYN 
   syn TENDENCY, TREND, DRIFT, TENOR, CURRENT