Tra từ tendency - Từ điển LongMan Dictionary

ten‧den‧cy S3 W3 /ˈtendənsi/ noun (plural tendencies) [COUNTABLE]
[date : 1600-1700; Language : Medieval Latin; Origin : tendentia, from Latin tendere; ⇨ tend]
1. if someone or something has a tendency to do or become a particular thing, they are likely to do or become it
a tendency to do something
　 ▪ Greg’s tendency to be critical made him unpopular with his co-workers.
　 ▪ The drug is effective but has a tendency to cause headaches.
tendency to/towards
　 ▪ Some people may inherit a tendency to alcoholism.
tendency for
　 ▪ Researchers believe that the tendency for diabetes is present at birth.

2. a general change or development in a particular direction
there is a tendency (for somebody) to do something
　 ▪ There is an increasing tendency for women to have children later in life.
tendency to/towards
　 ▪ a general tendency towards conservation and recycling
tendency among
　 ▪ a tendency among Americans to get married at a later age

3. aggressive/suicidal/criminal/artistic etc tendencies
a part of someone’s character that makes them likely to behave in a certain way or become an artist, criminal etc:
　 ▪ children with aggressive or anti-social tendencies

4. [ALSO + PLURAL VERB BRITISH ENGLISH]
a group within a larger political group that supports ideas that are usually more extreme than those of the main group:
　 ▪ the growing fascist tendency
• • •
COLLOCATIONS (for Meanings 1 & 3)
adjectives
▪a natural tendency (=one you are born with)
　 ▪ His recent experiences had reinforced a strong natural tendency towards caution.
▪an inherent/innate tendency (=one that you are born with, which will not change)
　 ▪ When attacked, some people have an inherent tendency to fight back.
▪a strong tendency
　 ▪ There is a strong tendency to give dying patients far more drugs than are necessary.
▪a marked tendency (=noticeable)
　 ▪ There is a marked tendency for Hollywood marriages to end in divorce.
▪aggressive/violent tendencies
　 ▪ Some breeds of dog have aggressive tendencies.
▪suicidal tendencies
　 ▪ They failed to inform the prison authorities of the man's suicidal tendencies.
▪criminal tendencies
　 ▪ How should we deal with young people who have criminal tendencies?
▪artistic tendencies
　 ▪ As he grew up, he displayed artistic tendencies.

noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
suicidal tendencies (=behaviour that showed she wanted to kill herself)
▪ For many years before treatment, Clare had suicidal tendencies .
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
ADJECTIVE
aggressive
▪ More than half of those worst affected had aggressive and anti-social tendencies.
▪ In Phoenix any aggressive tendencies were dampened by the location of these agencies within a government structure that frowned on federal aid.
▪ The Asiaticus does not appear to have any aggressive tendencies and appears to be equally active during the day and night.
criminal
▪ Learning theories have been much more important in positivist theorising about the acquisition of criminal tendencies.
general
▪ Some highly general tendencies, which will necessarily be subject to subsequent refinement and caution, can serve to represent the scene.
▪ The general tendency among long-time employees, said the study, is not to think of leaving.
▪ The reorganisation of local government in 1974 was another event which undoubtedly accentuated the general tendency for local expenditure to grow.
▪ Less obvious is Bourdieu s evidence that education fosters a general tendency towards the use of high culture.
▪ First, like all others, it represents general tendencies rather than exact categories.
▪ A general tendency towards making artillery lighter and more mobile can also be seen in the later decades of the century.
▪ These moves have had little effect on psychology's general tendency to represent sexuality simply as heterosexuality.
▪ But they were much more readily negotiable through association, which was already a basic general tendency in most other social activities.
great
▪ Cemeteries show a greater tendency towards large collective tombs.
▪ Low motor tone involves greater flexor tendencies.
▪ In 1980 it showed the greatest tendency to revitalise and performed averagely on a decline in deprivation index.
▪ The more volatile component is the one whose molecules have a greater tendency to escape into the vapour phase.
▪ They also have a greater tendency to rate themselves as ambitious, highly sexed, strong-willed and well endowed.
▪ Women from the higher classes have a greater tendency to stay single.
▪ Overall, they found a greater tendency to underpricing.
▪ Some people have a greater inherited tendency to depression than others.
growing
▪ There is a growing tendency for councils to give committees complete power to act on behalf of the council.
▪ Nowadays, there is a growing tendency to include the physical states of the reactants and products in equations.
▪ It was this growing tendency after 1983 which almost brought the government to its knees.
▪ It so happens that another growing tendency in contemporary thinking has been undermining the whole approach which leads to it.
▪ There was also a growing tendency to retain a certain amount of booty for personal use.
increasing
▪ By the way, I notice an increasing tendency for her critics to psychoanalyse Mrs Thatcher.
▪ In general, therefore, it constrains the increasing tendency for usefulness to mean more and more information.
▪ In business organizations the increasing tendency has been to use the basic financial statements as a measure of performance.
▪ Hence the increasing tendency for landlords to develop share-cropping tenancies to replace the crops they themselves found it more difficult to produce.
▪ Three arguments are often raised to counter the increasing tendency towards in-depth work.
▪ Fungicides have still got to be used, but there is an increasing tendency to use organic fertilisers.
▪ This concentration of the market also came about because of the increasing tendency of the rate of profit to decline.
natural
▪ The natural tendency is to try harder with the project that has gone some distance.
▪ Each one exaggerates her natural tendency under stress.
▪ I have already mentioned that right-handed pilots seem to have a natural tendency to turn left.
▪ Your goal is to understand these natural tendencies and use your understanding to help her find better ways to cope.
▪ Mary's natural tendency to fly into a temper probably did not increase their chances very much.
▪ The goal with the Louisas of the world is to help them learn how to go against their natural tendency.
▪ Younger people have a natural tendency to believe that the science they practise has been extant for the whole of time.
▪ There is a natural physical tendency to avoid activities that our nervous system tells us are difficult.
strong
▪ Smokey, warm and strong with a tendency to linger.
▪ Sodium has a strong tendency to lose an electron and become the positively charged ion Na.
▪ There's a strong suicidal tendency.
▪ They thus exhibit a strong tendency to drag their feet as doomsday draws nearer.
▪ There is a very strong tendency to take literally what needs imaginative interpretation.
▪ Literate societies have a strong tendency to take writing as the norm of language.
▪ Yet throughout her period of office there has been a strong authoritarian tendency.
suicidal
▪ Its sedative effects were valued, but sometimes progressed to pathological depression with suicidal tendencies, so its use was limited.
▪ The rumbling row with the unions over ending the block vote is a classic example of its suicidal tendencies.
▪ There's a strong suicidal tendency.
▪ But what about the apparently bizarre link with an increased suicidal tendency?
▪ Through a series of flashbacks, Judith's past is gradually explored, and you begin to take her suicidal tendencies seriously.
VERB
increase
▪ On the other hand the very same development increases their tendency to close their eyes to the future.
▪ Law students tend to become more concerned with matters of proper procedure and exhibit an increased tendency to reason by analogy.
▪ There is an increasing tendency to give more and more tests.
show
▪ Cemeteries show a greater tendency towards large collective tombs.
▪ The record shows a tendency to make a couple of kinds of particularly costly mistakes.
▪ What research has shown is that these tendencies to behave in certain ways are deeply embedded in past experiences.
▪ Our awareness of the euphemism is shown by our tendency to laugh at what we regard as false pretension.
▪ In 1980 it showed the greatest tendency to revitalise and performed averagely on a decline in deprivation index.
▪ The following case reports show the tendency to doubt the diagnosis and over investigate such patients.
▪ The parliamentarians hit back by accusing Mr Obasanjo of overstepping his powers and showing dictatorial tendencies.
▪ When it comes to dressing, she shows chameleon-like tendencies.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Can you discern an editorial leaning or tendency in the work they accept?
▪ Class Status derives from the tendency of people to accord positive and negative values to human attributes and to distribute respect accordingly.
▪ Her speech is badly slurred, and the tendency is to dismiss her as a drunk or a druggie.
▪ It's then that you realise he keeps his psychotic tendencies hidden, only to be let out onstage.
▪ Second, there is the tendency to hasten all those final writing chores, and this is a mistake.
▪ The arrow represents a plausible evolutionary tendency of adaptability.
▪ There is a tendency for illnesses to become more prolonged, less intense and for the recovery to be slower.