Word of the Day : October 11, 2017

tendentious \ten-DEN-shus\ adjective

Definition

: marked by a tendency in favor of a particular point of view : biased

Examples

The book proved to be a tendentious account of the town's history, written to rescue the reputation of one of its less scrupulous founders.

"The French satirical publication … has a record of ruffling feathers with tendentious headlines." — Daniel J. Solomon, The Forward (forward.com), 29 Aug. 2017

Did You Know?

Tendentious is one of several words English speakers can choose when they want to suggest that someone has made up his or her mind in advance. You may be partial to predisposed or prone to favor partisan, but whatever your leanings, we're inclined to think you'll benefit from adding tendentious to your repertoire. A derivative of the Medieval Latin word tendentia, meaning "tendency," plus the English suffix -ious, tendentious has been used in English as an adjective for biased attitudes since at least the end of the 19th century.

Aired October 11, 2017

All Merriam-Webster content is available at www.merriam-webster.com