Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day   /     tendentious

Description

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2024 is: tendentious • \ten-DEN-shus\  • adjective Tendentious is a formal word used disapprovingly to describe someone or something expressing a strongly biased point of view in a way that may cause argument. // 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. See the entry > Examples: “Polls can have their own politics, and media polls are often accused of being tendentious.” — Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal, 26 Oct. 2021 Did you know? Tendentious is one of several words English speakers can choose when they want to suggest that someone has made up their 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. Tendentious is a relatively recent arrival to English, considering its Latin roots. In the latter half of the 19th century, English users took the Latinate stem tendenti- (from tendentia, meaning “tendency”) and combined it with the familiar adjective suffix -ious to form a word describing someone with a tendency to favor a particular point of view, motivated by an intent to promote a particular cause.

Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for April 25, 2024 is: tendentious \ten-DEN-shus\ adjective Tendentious is a formal word used disapprovingly to describe someone or something expressing a strongly biased point of view in a way that may cause argument. // 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. [See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tendentious) Examples: “Polls can have their own politics, and media polls are often accused of being tendentious.” — Joseph Epstein, The Wall Street Journal, 26 Oct. 2021 Did you know? Tendentious is one of several words English speakers can choose when they want to suggest that someone has made up their mind in advance. You may be partial to [predisposed](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/predispose) or prone to favor [partisan](https://bit.ly/4a1jvzw), but whatever your leanings, we’re inclined to think you’ll benefit from adding tendentious to your repertoire. Tendentious is a relatively recent arrival to English, considering its Latin roots. In the latter half of the 19th century, English users took the Latinate stem tendenti- (from tendentia, meaning “tendency”) and combined it with the familiar adjective suffix [-ious](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-ious) to form a word describing someone with a tendency to favor a particular point of view, motivated by an intent to promote a particular cause.

Subtitle
Duration
00:01:41
Publishing date
2024-04-25 01:00
Link
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/tendentious-2024-04-25
Contributors
  Merriam-Webster
author  
Enclosures
https://rss.art19.com/episodes/603645dd-2130-4395-84d2-d8d37639343e.mp3
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