How to use propensity in a sentence
40 example sentences · noun
Propensity means an inclination, disposition, tendency, preference, or attraction. Example: “He has a propensity for lengthy discussions of certain favorite topics.”
Examples of propensity by meaning
nounAn inclination, disposition, tendency, preference, or attraction.
- He has a propensity for lengthy discussions of certain favorite topics.
- To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution.1902, William James, “Lecture I”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans...
- Here their peculiar propensities manifest themselves in making shibboleths of abstractions, in rationalizing and carrying to extremes certain ambitions which spring from the normal intercourse of men.1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of...
More sentences with propensity
- Stalin's propensity to play off his subordinates against one another is a well-studied theme.From the entry play off
- John has a propensity to make it rain at parties when he is drunk.From the entry make it rain
- The human propensity to resonate emotionally with others.From the entry resonate
- Baby birds are known for a propensity to imprint; they tend to imprint on whichever creatures they perceive to be their parents — including humans doing wildlife rescue!From the entry imprint
- But Loomer’s lack of control and propensity for interparty squabbling could hurt the former president.2024 September 13, Jeet Heer, “How Donald Trump Got Loomered”, in The Nation, archived from the original on 05 Oct 2024. From the entry Loomer
- Among such traits, propensity to inquilinism in termites is known to relate positively to colony size.2016 January 26, “Allometric Scaling of Patrolling Rate and Nest Volume in Constrictotermes cyphergaster Termites: Hints on the Settlement…. From the entry inquilinism
- This propensity to polyploidy helps account for the diversity (and thus success) of flowering plants, in particular.2014 June 28, “Double or quits”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8893. From the entry polyploidy
- Moreover, in this way it also removes the propensity for dissimulation, and makes one openhearted.2012, Immanuel Kant, Allen W. Wood, Robert B. Louden, Lectures on Anthropology, →ISBN, page 78. From the entry openhearted
- A unifying characteristic of the Connecticut Yankee, however, is a propensity for inventiveness.2008, Fodor's New England, 28th edition, Random House Digital, [page http://books.google.com/books?id=jtT-EjyG-eYC&pg=PA274&dq=nutmegger…. From the entry nutmegger
- Cachexia Africana referred to blacks' supposed propensity for eating nonfood substances such as clay, chalk, and dirt.2008, Harriet A. Washington, “Southern Discomfort”, in Medical Apartheid, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, page 52. From the entry cachexia Africana
- Here Newton identifies the propensity in human language to hypostatize, personify and substantify abstractions.2008, Jitse M. van der Meer, Scott Mandelbrote, Nature and Scripture in the Abrahamic religions. From the entry substantify
- I guess everything depends on one's propensity for this new ethereal, atonal, industrial, dreamgaze style.2000 October 5, FRED of LA, “Kid a.”, in alt.music.alternative (Usenet). From the entry dreamgaze
- Finally, the level of excludahility of a CPR should affect the propensity to free ride.1999, J. Samuel Barkin, George E. Shambaugh, Anarchy and the Environment, →ISBN. From the entry free ride
- Even in the territory's multicultural setting the Issei's propensity to 'marry in' was extraordinarily high.1994, Eileen Tamura, Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity, →ISBN. From the entry marry in
- These murders reveal not only our culture's profound gynocidal propensities, but simultaneously its geocidal desires and intentions.1993, Jane Caputi, Gossips, Gorgons and Crones: The Fates of the Earth, page 175. From the entry geocidal
- This "antimirror neuron" activity, as some researchers call it, appears to deactivate the brain's propensity to imitate another person."2012, Andrew Newberg, Mark Robert Waldman, Words Can Change Your Brain. From the entry antimirror neuron
- Barack Obama had become exasperated by the propensity of the party establishment to panic at every psephological blip.2010 February 28, Gary Younge, “The Tea Party is a dynamic force, but it is still unruly and incoherent”, in The Guardian, London…. From the entry blip
- Awareness of the ecocidal propensities of the rural population coincided with the first reckless surge of modern industry.2007, Graham Robb, The Discovery of France, Picador, published 2008, page 273. From the entry ecocidal
- Yet, to his many detractors, Jeff Kennett was shallow and reckless with a propensity for silly and embarrassing gaffes.2006, Nick Economou, “Jeff Kennett: The Larrikin Metropolitan”, in Paul Strangio, Brian Costar, editors, The Victorian Premiers…. From the entry larrikin
- A case in point is precisely Rorty's own taxonomic propensities, schematizing thinkers (not texts) according to common lexicalities and conceptualities.2006, Steve Martinot, Forms in the Abyss: A Philosophical Bridge Between Sartre and Derrida. From the entry lexicality
- The few adjectives that can be marked for dehortative or apprehensive mood are all physical property or human propensity adjectives.2004, R. M. W. Dixon, Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, Adjective Classes: A Cross-Linguistic Typology, page 273. From the entry dehortative
- As result, the Banfieldian policy maker has to focus on the environment and inducements rather than class and propensity.2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, Illusion of Order. From the entry Banfieldian
- Therefrom Boshy's saving propensities, being but the idiosyncrasies of the rich, were mercifully endured and spoken of by Mr.1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia…. From the entry acceptedly
- Although ideology is related to the propensity for a state to adopt stringent changes to campaign finance law, culture does not have a substantive effect.2014, Joel W. Paddock, “Local and State Political Parties”, in Donald P. Haider-Markel, editor, The Oxford Handbook of State and Local…. From the entry biennium
- An alief is, to a reasonable approximation, an innate or habitual propensity to respond to an apparent stimulus in a particular way.2008, TS Gendler, “Alief in action (and reaction)”, in Mind & Language. From the entry alief
- This book accentuates man's self indulgences, his selfish propensities, his moral depravity, his irreverence for God and the spiritual things of God.2004, Ed Marr, Vol 1: Repentance: The Doctrine of God and the Knowledge of Salvation (in the Old Testament), page 268. From the entry self indulgence
- I don't think Anatole can ever return to a place where he had once been due to his propensity for affairs of the heart.1993 August 27, Jayant Murthy, “Alt.Fan.Wodehouse hits a milestone.”, in alt.fan.wodehouse (Usenet). From the entry TOMT
- A great deal of the uneasiness about Clinton reflects his propensity to dance away from straightforward yes or no answers to any character question.1992 April 20, George J. Church, “Why Voters Don't Trust Clinton”, in Time, page 38. From the entry straightforward
- Human fears, needs, dreams release the latent propensities of the subliminal soul, and to respond to them the fabulating imagination sets to work.1990, Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, Tractatus Brevus, Kluwer, page 38. From the entry fabulate
- But more likely, Daniels’s propensity for offering TMI — bolstered by easygoing quips that made the jury laugh — kept her basic story and her credibility intact.2024 May 7, Nicholas Kristof, “Conversations and insights about the moment.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry TMI
- It is interesting however, that this encoding method allowed amyloidogenicity propensity prediction with relatively high accuracy (73.1%), considering the simplicity of the information provided to the learning algorithm.2015 August 5, “Prediction of Peptide and Protein Propensity for Amyloid Formation”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry amyloidogenicity
- A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.2013 May-June, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 193. From the entry common
- The goal is to translate terms that purport to refer to mental activity into terms that speak only of behaviors or propensities to behave in certain ways.1988, William Bechtel, Philosophy of Mind: An Overview for Cognitive Science, Hillsdale, New Jersey; Hove; London: Lawrence Erlbaum…. From the entry philosophical behaviorist
- To that end, Chaos engineers a series of machines called the ‘evilizers’ (yes, evilizers, not making this up), which have the propensity to morph normal creatures into evil versions thereof.2013, Skylanders Swap Force PlayStation 4 Review, Gameranx. From the entry evilize
- Thanks to the widespread otkhod from peasant villages, especially in construction, and Soviet managers' propensity to "storm," industrial life was not an entirely alien world to the Soviet Union's peasants.2011, Matthew J. Payne, Stalin's Railroad: Turksib and the Building of Socialism, page 246. From the entry otkhod
- This Blake is, as might be expected, something out of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, complete with trust fund, magazine job, and a propensity to speak in quiet, question-marked sentences?2002 January 28, Elizabeth Frankenberger, “Sects and the City”, in Jeff Sharlet, Peter Manseau, the editors of Killing the Buddha…. From the entry question-marked
- Such players, say the EverQuesters, discount the fun involved in questing and, due to their desire to get quality items, increase a propensity among players for camping near monster hotspots.2001 April, “EQ Banned: eBay Cracks Down on Item Farmers”, in PC PowerPlay, number 59, page 13. From the entry EverQuester
Meaning of propensity
- noun An inclination, disposition, tendency, preference, or attraction.
Questions about propensity in a sentence
- How do you use propensity in a sentence?
- Propensity is used as a noun. For example: “He has a propensity for lengthy discussions of certain favorite topics.”
- What is a short sentence with propensity?
- “The human propensity to resonate emotionally with others.”
- What does propensity mean?
- Propensity means an inclination, disposition, tendency, preference, or attraction.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: propensity (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use propensity in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/propensity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
