tendency
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈtɛndənsi/
Noun

tendency (plural tendencies)

  1. A likelihood of behaving in a particular way or going in a particular direction; a tending toward.
    Denim has a tendency to fade.
  2. (politics) An organised unit or faction within a larger political organisation.
    • 1974, James Boggs, Grace Lee Boggs, Revolution and Evolution, NYU Press ISBN 9780853453536, page 134
      Mao launched the struggle against the vulgar materialist tendency within the party as early as 1937.
    • 1997, S. Onslow, Backbench Debate within the Conservative Party and its Influence on British Foreign Policy, 1948-57, Springer ISBN 9780230378940, page 234
      In stark contrast to the Europeanist tendency within the party and the Suez Group, this group had a short history.
    • 2013, Richard Gillespie, Lourdes Lopez Nieto, Michael Waller, Factional Politics and Democratization, Routledge ISBN 9781135243463, page 83
      It reinforced the position of the conformist tendency within the party, since the majority of the candidates were old politicians, many of them members of Papandreou's centre-left CU faction back in the mid-1960s.
Synonyms Translations
  • French: tendance
  • German: Tendenz (not often used in this sense, one would rather use a verb such as "zu (...) neigen" or tendieren)
  • Italian: tendenza
  • Portuguese: tendência
  • Russian: тенде́нция
  • Spanish: tendencia



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