different between attention vs curiosity

English

Etymology

From Middle English attencioun, borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionis, from attendere, past participle attentus (“to attend, give heed to”); see attend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?n.??n/

Noun

attention (countable and uncountable, plural attentions)

1. (uncountable) Mental focus.
2. (countable) An action or remark expressing concern for or interest in someone or something, especially romantic interest.
   • 1818, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, ch. 3,

     She attended her sickbed; her watchful attentions triumphed over the malignity of the distemper.

   • 1910, Stephen Leacock, "How to Avoid Getting Married," in Literary Lapses,

     For some time past I have been the recipient of very marked attentions from a young lady.

3. (uncountable, military) A state of alertness in the standing position.

4. (uncountable, computing) A technique in neural networks that mimics cognitive attention, enhancing the important parts of the input data while giving less priority to the rest.

Synonyms

• (mental focus): heed, notice; see also Thesaurus:attention

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Interjection

attention

1. (military) Used as a command to bring soldiers to the attention position.
2. A call for people to be quiet/stop doing what they are presently doing and pay heed to what they are to be told or shown.

Translations

Further reading

• attention in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• attention in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Antonetti, tentation

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin attentio, attentionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.t??.sj??/

Noun

attention f (uncountable)

1. attention, (mental focus)
2. vigilance
3. attention (concern for or interest in)
4. consideration, thoughtfulness

Derived terms

• faire attention
• prêter attention

Related terms

• attendre
• attentif

Interjection

attention !

1. look out! watch out! careful!

Further reading

• “attention” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• tentation

English

Etymology

From Middle English curiosite, variant of curiouste, from Anglo-Norman curiouseté, from Latin c?ri?sit?tem, from c?ri?sus. Surface analysis curious +? -ity; see -osity.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kyoo?r"??s'?t?, IPA^(key): /?kj??????s?ti/

Noun

curiosity (countable and uncountable, plural curiosities)

1. (uncountable) Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring. [from 17th c.]

   Synonym: inquisitiveness

   Antonym: ignorance

   • 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde

     It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy, windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre
2. A unique or extraordinary object which arouses interest. [from 17th c.]

3. (obsolete) Careful, delicate construction; fine workmanship, delicacy of building. [16th-19th c.]
   • 1631, John Smith, Advertisements, in Kupperman 1988, p. 81:

     wee built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so also was the walls; the best of our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part farre much worse workmanship […]

Derived terms

• curiosity killed the cat

Related terms

• curious

Translations

References