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Dictionary:

curiosity

  (kyʊr'ē-ŏs'ĭ-tē) pronunciation
n., pl. -ties.
  1. A desire to know or learn.
  2. A desire to know about people or things that do not concern one; nosiness.
  3. An object that arouses interest, as by being novel or extraordinary: kept the carved bone and displayed it as a curiosity.
  4. A strange or odd aspect.
  5. Archaic. Fastidiousness.

[Middle English curiosite, from Old French, from Latin cūriōsitās, from cūriōsus, inquisitive. See curious.]


 
 
Thesaurus: curiosity

noun

  1. Mental acquisitiveness: curiousness, inquisitiveness, interest. Idioms: thirst for knowledge. See investigate.
  2. Undue interest in the affairs of others: curiousness, inquisitiveness. Informal nosiness, snoopiness. See investigate.

 
Antonyms: curiosity

n

Definition: intense desire to know, understand
Antonyms: disinterest, indifference

n

Definition: odd item
Antonyms: normality


 
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


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.


 
Word Tutor: curiosity
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A strong feeling of wanting to know or learn. Also: a strange or unusual thing.

pronunciation Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning. — William Arthur Ward.

 
Quotes About: Curiosity

Quotes:

"The curiosity to know things has been given to man as a scourge." - Apocrypha

"You must learn day by day, year by year, to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in." - Ethel Barrymore

"Be not curious in unnecessary matters: for more things are shrewd unto thee than men understand." - Bible

"Where the apple reddens never pry -- lest we lose our Edens, Eve and I." - Robert Browning

"All my life I've been harassed by questions: Why is something this way and not another? How do you account for that? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal. If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence." - Luis Bunuel

"The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity." - Edmund Burke

See more famous quotes about Curiosity

 
Wikipedia: curiosity
A curious kitten.
Enlarge
A curious kitten.

Curiosity is any natural inquisitive behaviour, evident by observation in many animal species, and is the emotional aspect of living beings that engenders exploration, investigation, and learning.

Definition

In essence, "curiosity" is a term that describes an unknown number of behavioral and psychological mechanisms that have the effect of impelling beings to seek information and interaction with their natural environment and with other beings in their vicinity.{{Fact|date=February 2007}

Causes

See also: Behavioral genetics

Curiosity is an innate capability of many living beings, but it can not be subsumed under category of instinct because it lacks the quality of fixed action pattern; it is rather one of innate basic emotions because it can be expressed in many flexible ways while instinct is always expressed in a fixed way, and like any innate capability it confers a survival advantage to certain species, and can be found in their genomes.

Who is affected?

Curiosity is common to human beings at all ages from infancy to old age, and is easy to observe in many other animal species. These include apes, cats, fish, reptiles, and insects; as well as many others. Many aspects of exploration are shared among all beings, as all known terrestrial beings share similar aspects: limited size and a need to seek out food sources.

Strong curiosity is the main motivation of famous scientists. In fact, it is mainly curiosity that makes a human being an expert in a certain field of knowledge.

Many famous historical figures were affected strongly by curiosity, to explore and conquer, for example, Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, Coronado, Sir Francis Drake, etc., to name a few.

Abstract curiosity

Though humans are sometimes considered particularly very curious, they sometimes seem to miss the obvious when compared to other animals. What seems to happen is that human curiosity combined with the ability to think in an abstract way, lead to mimesis, fantasy and imagination - eventually leading to an especially human way of thinking ("human reason"), which is abstract and self aware, or conscious.

Morbid curiosity

A morbid curiosity is a compulsion, fixed with excitement and fear, to know about macabre topics, such as death and horrible violence (see also: snuff film). In a milder form, however, this can be understood as a cathartic form of behavior or as something instinctive within humans. According to Aristotle, in his Poetics we even "enjoy contemplating the most precise images of things whose sight is painful to us." (This aspect of our nature is often referred to as the 'Car Crash Syndrome' or 'Trainwreck Syndrome', derived from the notorious inability of passersby to ignore such accidents.)


 
Translations: Translations for: Curiosity

Dansk (Danish)
n. - nysgerrighed, mærkværdighed, kuriositet

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    nysgerrighed dræbte smedens kat

Nederlands (Dutch)
nieuwsgierigheid, curiositeit

Français (French)
n. - curiosité, intérêt, original (une personne)

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    la curiosité est un vilain défaut

Deutsch (German)
n. - Neugier, Kuriosität

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    halt deine Neugier in Schranken

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - περιέργεια, παλαιό κομψοτέχνημα

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    όποιος ανακατεύεται με τα πίτουρα τον τρώνε οι κότες

Italiano (Italian)
curiosità

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    tanto va la gatta al lardo...

Português (Portuguese)
n. - curiosidade (f)

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    a curiosidade matou o gato

Русский (Russian)
любопытство, диковинка

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    любопытной Варваре на базаре нос оторвали

Español (Spanish)
n. - curiosidad, extrañeza, rareza

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    por la boca muere el pez, la curiosidad mató al gato

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - vetgirighet, nyfikenhet, märkvärdighet, kuriositet

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
好奇心, 珍品, 新奇的事物

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    不要太好奇

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 好奇心, 珍品, 新奇的事物

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    不要太好奇

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 호기심, 신기함, 진품

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 好奇心, せんさく好き, 珍しいもの, 骨董品

idioms:

  • curiosity killed the cat    好奇心もほどほどに

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فضول, تطفل, حب الاستطلاع, تحفه, طرفه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סקרנות, דבר נדיר‬


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial Read more
Quotes About. Copyright © 2005 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Curiosity" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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