Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Curiosity |
CuriosityNoun1. A state in which you want to learn more about something. 2. Something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "curiosity" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
Etymology: Curiosity \Cu`ri*os"i*ty\ (k[=u]`r[i^]*[o^]s"[i^]*t[y^]), noun; plural Curiosities(-t[i^]z). [Old English curiouste, curiosite, Old French curioset['e], curiosit['e], French curiosit['e], from Latin curiositas, from curiosus. See Curious, and compare to Curio.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. The desire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is one of the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: CuriositySynonyms: curio (n), oddity (n), oddment (n), peculiarity (n), rarity (n), wonder (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Curiosity | Phrase: what's the matter? what next? consumed with curiosity; curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought it back. "curiouser and curiouser". |
Noun: interest, thirst for knowledge, thirst for truth; curiosity, curiousness; inquiring mind; inquisitiveness. | |
Adjective: curious, inquisitive, burning with curiosity, overcurious; inquiring; prying, snoopy, nosy, peering; prurient; inquisitorial, inquisitory; curious as a cat; agape; (expectant). | |
Expectation | Suspense, waiting, abeyance; curiosity; anxious expectation, ardent expectation, eager expectation, breathless expectation, sanguine expectation; torment of Tantalus. |
Incuriosity | Verb: be incurious; Adjective: have no curiosity; take no interest in; mind one's own business. |
Prodigy | Noun: prodigy, phenomenon; wonder, wonderment; marvel, miracle; monster; (unconformity); curiosity, lion, sight, spectacle; jeu de theatre, coup de theatre; gazingstock; sign; St. Elmo's fire, St. Elmo's light; portent. |
Unconformity | Nonconformist; nondescript, character, original, nonesuch, nonsuch, monster, prodigy, wonder, miracle, curiosity, flying fish, black sheep, black swan, lusus naturae, rara avis, queer fish; mongrel, random breed; half-caste, half-blood, half-breed; metis, crossbreed, hybrid, mule, hinny, mulatto; tertium quid, hermaphrodite. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Curiosity |
| English words defined with "curiosity": Allium cepa viviparum, An article, annoyer ♦ Curiosities, curious, curiously, curiousness ♦ desire to know ♦ Egyptian onion ♦ Gazingstock ♦ Incuriosity, incurious, inquisitive, inquisitively, inquisitiveness, interest, interested, interrogatively, intriguing, involvement ♦ lust for learning ♦ overcurious ♦ Pandora's box ♦ questioning, Quodlibetical ♦ sensational, Show box, slum, speculative ♦ tease, teaser, thirst for knowledge, top onion, tree onion ♦ uninquiring, uninquisitive, uninteresting, unsensational ♦ vexer ♦ wondering. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "curiosity": Codlin's your Friend, not Short, Crochet Work ♦ Davy's Sow ♦ Exploratory Behavior ♦ Frozen Words ♦ Little Nell ♦ Make, Manufacture, Master Humphrey, Mummy ♦ Pike's Head ♦ Quilp ♦ Stone Soup ♦ THUMB, tomb ♦ What's a spline?. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "curiosity": Curio. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Just out of curiosity, what was the fourth story (The American President; writing credit: Aaron Sorkin.) Then out of curiosity, boredom, who knows what, I left the old world and came back to my America (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles; writing credit: Anne Rice) It is only out of sheer morbid curiosity that I am allowing this freak show to continue (Liar Liar; writing credit: Paul Guay; Stephen Mazur) Well, apparently, we're both suffering from a deplorable lack of curiosity. (The Sound of Music; writing credit: Richard Rodgers; Oscar Hammerstein II) No one in Guilder knows what we've done, and no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast. --Out of curiosity, why do you ask (The Princess Bride; writing credit: William Goldman) | |
Lyrics | All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity (Dust in the Wind; performing artist: KANSAS) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Curiosity Show (1972) The Old Curiosity Shop (1962) His Curiosity (1917) Beatrice Fairfax Episode 12: Curiosity (1916) Curiosity (1915) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Curiosity / Pub'd by T. McLean, Haymarket 1835. Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Curiosity overrode fear in the faces of these English children who took shelter in a ditch during a German air raid in 1940. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | A Curiosity in Ireland / C.W. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Inspecting the Democratic curiosity shop. Hancock (at sight of the Old Bourbon War Horse): "Great Scott! Am I to be the head of that?" / J. Keppler ; Mayer, Merkel & Ottmann lithog., N.Y. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Female curiosity. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Old Curiosity Shop, St. Augustine, Fla. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Mrs. Edward Titus (Mme Helena Rubenstein), residence at 895 Park Ave. Miniature rooms, Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Curiosity" by Fabrizio Mencarini Commentary: "Waiting for marriage." | "Beach time 2" by Ossian Engmark Commentary: "My girlfriend in the water.. Thanx for the comments! Each and everyone makes it all worth... It would be nice to know if you use it for something.. Just out of curiosity.. :-)." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Charles Lamb | Newspapers always excite curiosity. No one ever lays one down without a feeling of disappointment. |
Jeremy Taylor | Curiosity is the direct incontinence of the spirit. |
Lord Byron | That low vice, curiosity! |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret. |
Richard Whately | Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory. |
Samuel Johnson | Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last. |
Victor Hugo | Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery. |
W. Winwood Reade | The philosophic spirit of inquiry may be traced to brute curiosity, and that to the habit of examining all things in search of food. |
Walt Disney | Somehow I can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarised in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage and Constancy, and the greatest of all is Confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Emma | Austen, Jane | S, I had a great curiosity. |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | I was watching with some curiosity. |
Scarlet Letter | Hawthorne, Nathaniel | I used to watch and study this patriarchal personage with, I think, livelier curiosity than any other form of humanity there presented to my notice |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | They were well punished for their curiosity. |
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man | Joyce, James | A low murmur of curiosity ran round the chapel at the discovery of this girlish figure |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | My master observed the whole performance with great signs of curiosity and admiration |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Curiosity and the desire to fit into a social group are common reasons. (references) | |
A simple answer, such as "I was born this way" or "God made me this way" is often enough to satisfy curiosity. (references) | ||
Many adult implant recipients report being able to function socially or vocationally in ways comparable to those with moderate hearing loss. Furthermore, they describe a new or renewed curiosity about the experience of hearing and the phenomena of sound. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Korea | Court precedents allow citizens to possess these kinds of publications for purely academic use, profit, or curiosity, but not with the intent of subverting the Government. (references) |
Economic History | Denmark | The direct marketing which has most piqued consumer curiosity are combination mail-order catalogs and TV-Shop sales. (references) |
Spain | With the projected economic stability and an increasing awareness and curiosity for the U.S. in general, particularly among the younger generations, Spain is a pristine market of opportunity for a wide-variety of U.S. destinations. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | TOMB, n. The House of Indifference. Tombs are now by common consent invested with a certain sanctity, but when they have been long tenanted it is considered no sin to break them open and rifle them, the famous Egyptologist, Dr. Huggyns, explaining that a tomb may be innocently "glened" as soon as its occupant is done "smellynge," the soul being then all exhaled. This reasonable view is now generally accepted by archaeologists, whereby the noble science of Curiosity has been greatly dignified. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Dwight Eisenhower | 1953-1961 | Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Curiosity" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.82% of the time. "Curiosity" is used about 1,114 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.82% | 1,112 | 6,823 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.09% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (common) | 0.09% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,114 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "curiosity": be consumed with curiosity ♦ burst with curiosity ♦ curiosity killed the cat ♦ curiosity shop ♦ excite curiosity ♦ have no curiosity ♦ old curiosity shop ♦ out of curiosity ♦ show curiosity ♦ tickle smb.'s curiosity ♦ whet one's curiosity ♦ with curiosity. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "curiosity": curiosity-monger, curiosity-oriented. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "curiosity"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | thagmë (miracle, oddity, wonder), kuriozitet (sight), kureshtje (inquisitiveness, pry), gjë e rrallë (rara avis, rarity). (various references) | |
Arabic | فضول (inquisitiveness, nosiness), حب إستطلاع (inquisitiveness, nosiness, oddity), تحفة لافتة للنظر, صفة غريبة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | рядък предмет (oner), рядкост (freak, rareness, rarity, scarcity, sparsity, virtu), антикварна рядкост (curio), любознателност (inquisitiveness), любопитство (wonderment), любопитна черта. (various references) | |
Chinese | 求知欲 (Curiosities), 好奇心 . (various references) | |
Czech | zvìdavost, rarita (curio, rarity), kuriozita (curio, rarity). (various references) | |
Danish | nysgerrighedsforskning på embryoet (curiosity-oriented research on the embryo). (various references) | |
Dutch | weetgierigheid, nieuwsgierigheid. (various references) | |
Esperanto | scivolo, scivolemo, sciavido. (various references) | |
Farsi | چیزغریب (Curio), کمیاب (Infrequent, Rare, Scarce, Uncommon), حس کنجکاوی . (various references) | |
Finnish | uteliaisuus (inquisitiveness), merkillisyys (peculiarity, remarkableness), harvinaisuus (infrequency, rare thing, rareness, rarity). (various references) | |
French | curiosité. (various references) | |
German | Neugierde (curiousness, inquisitiveness, nosiness), Seltenheit (infrequence, rareness, rarity, scarceness, scarcity, sparsity), neugier (inquisitiveness, nosiness), Merkwürdigkeit (curiousness, odd thing, oddness, queerness, remarkableness, strangeness), kuriosität (curio, oddity, peculiarity, quaintness). (various references) | |
Greek | περιέργεια (nosiness). (various references) | |
Hebrew | הסתקרנות (inquisitiveness), סקרנת, סקרנות (inquisitiveness). (various references) | |
Hungarian | kíváncsiság (inquisitiveness), érdekesség. (various references) | |
Italian | curiosità (curiousness, inquisitiveness). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 物好き , 好奇心 (inquisitiveness), 奇貨 , キャンプ村 (campaign, campaign sale, campsite, Canberra, Canon, Cuba, Cuban heel, cubic, cubic type, cubism, cue, culotte, culotte skirt, Cupid, curacao, curator, cure, curie, curium, cute, cuticle, cuticle cream, cuticle remover, cutie, killer, killer dust, kiosk, queue), 不思議 (marvel, miracle, mystery, strange, wonder). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | きか (geometry, mechanization, naturalization, sunflower, troops under one's command, under ones command, under the banner, vaporization, word of respect added to the adressee's name on a letter, you, your home), ふしぎ (marvel, miracle, mystery, strange, wonder), こうきしん (inquisitiveness), キュリオシティー , ものずき (storage room, storeroom). (various references) | |
Korean | 호기심 (Curiosities). (various references) | |
Manx | peeikearagh (descrying, nosey, peep, peeping, pry, pryer, prying, view, view from concealment, watch), fysseragh (inquisitive, intelligent, nosey, prescient, subtle, well-informed), cooishagh (artful, causal, cautelous, chatty, inquisitive, wily), aitt (droll, funny, quaint). (various references) | |
Norwegian | nyskjerrighet. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | uriositycay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | curiosidade (curio). (various references) | |
Romanian | curiozitate (curio, freak, inquisitiveness, interest, peculiarity, singularity), ciudãţenie (behavior, behaviour, curio, eccentricity, extravagance, freak, kink, oddity, oddment, oddness, originality, peculiarity, queerness, quip, singularity, strangeness, vagary, whim, whimsicality), obiect rar, dorinţã de a şti. (various references) | |
Russian | любопытство (pry). (various references) | |
Scottish | deasmaireas. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | znatiželja, radoznalost (inquisitiveness). (various references) | |
Spanish | curiosidad (curio, freak, inquisitiveness). (various references) | |
Swedish | nyfikenhet. (various references) | |
Turkish | tuhaf tip (case, curio, fruitcake, odd fellow, odd fish, oddity, screwball, weirdo), merak (anxiety, avocation, bug, care, concern, crotchet, disquiet, disquietude, fad, fancy, hobby, interest, sensation, whim, wonderment, worry), ilginç şey (curio), ilgi (affinity, attachment, attention, bearing, care, concern, connection, connexion, interest, involvement, liking, pertinence, reference, regard, relation, relationship, relativeness, relevance, relevancy, respect, solicitude, sympathies, sympathy, thought), antika (antiquarian, antique, crusted, curio, eccentric, kooky, old world, quaint, queer). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | цікавість (pry), допитливість (inquisitiveness), дивність (eccentricity, oddness, queerness, strangeness), дивина (wonder). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | cảnh lạ sự kỳ lạ, vật quý (asset, jewel, lion, treasure), vật hiếm, tính tò mò (inquisitiveness), tính hiếu kỳ vật kỳ lạ, tính ham biết sự tò mò, sự ham biết. (various references) | |
Welsh | cywreinrwydd, cywreinbeth, chwilfrydedd. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | curiositas, curiositate. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "curiosity": incuriosity. (additional references) | |
| |
"Curiosity" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: couriosity, curiosit, curiosite, curiositys, curiosoty, curiousity, curiousty, curiuosity, curosity. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "curiosity" (pronounced kyuh'rēÄ"sutē) |
| 6 | -ē Ä" s u t ē | religiosity. |
| 5 | -Ä" s u t ē | animosity, atrocity, ferocity, generosity, monstrosity, pomposity, reciprocity, velocity, virtuosity, viscosity. |
| 4 | -s u t ē | adversity, analyticity, audacity, authenticity, biodiversity, capacity, complexity, complicity, density, laxity, diversity, domesticity, duplicity, eccentricity, elasticity, electricity, ethnicity, falsity, Felicity, incapacity, intensity, mendacity, multiplicity, necessity, obesity, opacity, overcapacity, paucity, perplexity, perversity, propensity, publicity, scarcity, simplicity, specificity, tenacity, toxicity, university, varsity, veracity, voracity. |
| 3 | -u t ē | absurdity, acceptability, accessibility, ability, abnormality, accountability, acidity, activity, actuality, acuity, adaptability, admissibility, advisability, affinity, affordability, aggressivity, agility, alacrity, alkalinity, ambiguity, amenity, amiability, amity, annuity, anonymity, antiquity, anxiety, applicability, austerity, authority, availability, banality, barbarity, believability, bestiality, bisexuality, brevity, brutality, calamity, capability, captivity, causality, cavity, celebrity, centrality, charity, chastity, civility, clarity, collegiality, commodity, commonality, community, comparability, compatibility, comprehensibility, conditionality, conductivity, confidentiality, conformity, congeniality, congruity, connectivity, constitutionality, continuity, convertibility, creativity, credibility, credulity, criminality, criticality, crotchety, culpability, cyclicality, debility, deductibility, deformity, deity, deniability, dependability, depravity, deputy, desirability, dexterity, dignity, dimensionality, disability, discontinuity, irresponsibility, irritability, laity, legality, disparity, dissimilarity, disunity, divinity, docility, duality, ductility, durability, electability, eligibility, enforceability, enmity, enormity, entity, equality, equanimity, equity, eternity, eventuality, exclusivity, expressivity, extraterritoriality, extremity, facility, fallibility, familiarity, fatality, feasibility, femininity, fertility, festivity, fidelity, finality, flammability, flexibility, fluidity, formality, fragility, fraternity, frivolity, frugality, functionality, futility, generality, geniality, gentility, gratuity, gravity, gullibility, heredity, heterogeneity, heterosexuality, hilarity, homogeneity, homosexuality, hospitality, hostility, humanity, humidity, humility, hyperactivity, hypersensitivity, identity, illegality, illiquidity, immaturity, immobility, immorality, immortality, immunity, impartiality, impersonality, impossibility, impropriety, impunity, impurity, inability, inaccessibility, inactivity, incivility, incompatibility, incongruity, incredulity, indemnity, indestructibility, indignity, individuality, inequality, inequity, inevitability, infallibility, inferiority, infertility, infidelity, infinity, infirmity, inflexibility, informality, ingenuity, inhumanity, insanity, insecurity, insensitivity, instability, instrumentality, insularity, integrity, invincibility, invisibility, invulnerability, irrationality, irregularity, legibility, lethality, levity, liability, liberality, liquidity, lividity, locality, longevity, majority, malleability, maneuverability, marketability, masculinity, materiality, maternity, maturity, mediocrity, mentality, minority, miscibility, mobility, modality, modernity, morality, morbidity, mortality, motility, municipality, musicality, mutuality, nationality, nativity, negativity, neutrality, nobility, Nonconformity, nonentity, nonutility, normality, notoriety, nudity, objectivity, obscenity, obscurity, oddity, opportunity, originality, oversensitivity, palatability, parity, partiality, particularity, passivity, paternity, peculiarity, permeability, perpetuity, personality, piety, plausibility, plurality, polarity, polity, popularity, portability, possibility, posterity, practicality, predictability, principality, priority, probability, probity, proclivity, productivity, profanity, profitability, progressivity, promiscuity, proportionality, propriety, prosperity, proximity, punctuality, purity, quality, quantity, radioactivity, rapidity, rarity, rationality, reactivity, readability, reality, receptivity, reflexivity, regularity, relativity, reliability, respectability, responsibility, retroactivity, rickety, rigidity, salinity, sanctity, sanity, seasonality, security, selectivity, senility, seniority, sensibility, sensitivity, sensuality, sentimentality, serendipity, serenity, severity, sexuality, similarity, sincerity, sobriety, society, solemnity, solidarity, solidity, sorority, speciality, spirituality, spontaneity, stability, sterility, stupidity, subjectivity, suitability, superconductivity, superfluidity, superiority, supermajority, surety, survivability, susceptibility, sustainability, technicality, temerity, theatricality, timidity, tonality, totality, tranquility, transferability, Trinity, triviality, turbidity, ubiquity, unanimity, unavailability, unfamiliarity, uniformity, unity, universality, unpopularity, unpredictability, unreality, unreliability, uppity, utility, validity, vanity, variability, variety, velvety, venality, Verity, versatility, viability, vicinity, virginity, virility, visibility, vitality, volatility, vulgarity, vulnerability. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-i-i-o-r-s-t-u-y" | |
-2 letters: citrous, citrusy, soritic. | |
-3 letters: citrus, coitus, courts, crusty, curios, curtsy, outcry, rictus, rustic, stoury, suitor. | |
-4 letters: coirs, court, crust, curio, curst, cutis, ictus, riots, rotis, roust, routs, rusty, ryots, scour, scout, stoic, story, stour, stroy, tiros, torcs, toric, torii, torsi, torus, tours, trios, trois, troys, tyros, yours, yurts. | |
-5 letters: cist, city, coir, cors, cory. | |
| Words containing the letters "c-i-i-o-r-s-t-u-y" | |
+2 letters: incuriosity, promiscuity, voyeuristic. | |
+3 letters: circuitously, victoriously. | |
+4 letters: justificatory, precipitously, touristically. | |
+5 letters: ichthyosaurian, meretriciously, peritrichously, pertinaciously. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Fiction 11. Quotations: Non-fiction 12. Quotations: Speeches | 13. Usage Frequency 14. Expressions 15. Expressions: Internet 16. Translations: Modern | 17. Translations: Ancient 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
