inclination
noun
Simple meaning
A physical tilt or bend.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnkluhnayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnkləˈneɪʃən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A physical tilt or bend.
A tendency.
A slant or slope.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A physical tilt or bend.
Used this way, inclination is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use inclination
- “Her inclination is for classical music.”noun
- “He had an inclination to give up too easily.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The angle between the plane of the orbit and the plane of the ecliptic stated in degrees.
The angle formed by the x-axis and a given line (measured counterclockwise from the positive half of the x-axis).
The angle that a magnetic needle makes with the plane of the horizon.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: physical tilt or bend
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.