Meaning & use
curiosity
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Meanings
noununcountable
A wish to find out or understand something.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: she felt great curiosity. Often followed by about or for.
Patterns
- curiosity about something
- out of curiosity
The children's curiosity about space never faded.
Out of curiosity, I opened the old box.
Curiosity drove her to ask more questions.
nouncountable
An unusual or interesting object, person, or fact that attracts attention.
Grammar: Countable: a curiosity, many curiosities.
The antique shop was full of curiosities.
The tiny, ancient car was a curiosity on the road.
Word forms
| plural | curiosities |
|---|
Common combinations
- intellectual curiosity
- Good teachers encourage intellectual curiosity.
- satisfy your curiosity
- She looked it up online to satisfy her curiosity.
- arouse curiosity
- The locked door aroused his curiosity.
- out of curiosity
- I asked out of curiosity, not criticism.
- natural curiosity
- A toddler's natural curiosity is endless.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inquisitiveness
- It stresses a habit of asking questions and is more formal than curiosity.
- interest
- Interest is milder and need not involve wanting to find out something specific.
- nosiness
- Nosiness is disapproving, since it means curiosity about other people's private business.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: curiosity or curiousity?
curiosity vs curiousity
This is a common misspelling; the correct spelling is curiosity, with no u before the s.
Practice
I only asked ___ curiosity; I don't need the answer.
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase is out of curiosity, meaning because of a wish to know. The other options are not used with this phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “curiosity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.