curiosity

Noun

curiosity (countable and uncountable, plural curiosities)

1. (uncountable) Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring.
   • It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, […]1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Incident of the Letter”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 44
   • "Certainly there is nothing wrong with Alvin's intelligence, but many of the things that should concern him seem to be a matter of complete indifference. On the other hand, he shows a morbid curiosity regarding subjects which we do not generally discuss."1956, Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, page 39

   Synonyms:

   inquisitiveness

   Antonyms:

   ignorance

2. A unique or extraordinary object which arouses interest.
   • He put the strangely shaped rock in his curiosity cabinet.
   • [The room] was adorned with a great number of nicknacks and curiosities, which might have engaged the attention of a virtuoso.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
3. (obsolete) Careful, delicate construction; fine workmanship, delicacy of building.
   • wee built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so also was the walls; the best of our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part farre much worse workmanship […]1631, John Smith, Advertisements, Kupperman, published 1988, page 81