different between bearing vs tendency

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?b??????/
• (US) enPR: bâr'?ng IPA^(key): /?b????/
• Rhymes: -?????

Etymology 1

From Middle English beringe, berynge, berende, berande, berand, from Old English berende (“bearing; fruitful”) (also as synonym Old English b?rende), from Proto-Germanic *berandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *beran? (“to bear; carry”), equivalent to bear +? -ing.

Verb

bearing

1. present participle of bear

Adjective

bearing (not comparable)

1. (in combination) That bears (some specified thing).

   a gift-bearing visitor

2. Of a beam, column, or other device, carrying weight or load.

   That's a bearing wall.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bering, beringe, berynge, equivalent to bear +? -ing.

Noun

bearing (plural bearings)

1. A mechanical device that supports another part and/or reduces friction.
2. (navigation, nautical) The horizontal angle between the direction of an object and another object, or between it and that of true north; a heading or direction.
3. (in the plural, especially in phrases such as 'get one's bearings') One's understanding of one's orientation or relative position, literally or figuratively.

   Do we go left here or straight on? Hold on, let me just get my bearings.

   I started a new job last week, and I still haven't quite found my bearings.

4. Relevance; a relationship or connection.

   That has no bearing on this issue.
5. One's posture, demeanor, or manner.

   She walks with a confident, self-assured bearing.
6. (architecture) That part of any member of a building which rests upon its supports.

   A lintel or beam may have four inches of bearing upon the wall.

7. (architecture) The portion of a support on which anything rests.
8. (architecture, proscribed) The unsupported span.

   The beam has twenty feet of bearing between its supports.

9. (heraldry) Any single emblem or charge in an escutcheon or coat of arms.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo

     Jos Sedley's open carriage, with its magnificent armorial bearings.

Hyponyms

Related terms

• find one’s bearings
• get one’s bearings
• lose one’s bearings

Translations

See also

• ABEC
• bearing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Binegar, bangier, barge in

English

Etymology

Ultimately from Latin tendere / tend?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?t?nd?nsi/
• Hyphenation: ten?den?cy

Noun

tendency (plural tendencies)

1. A likelihood of behaving in a particular way or going in a particular direction; a tending toward.

2. (politics) An organised unit or faction within a larger political organisation.
   • 1974, James Boggs, Grace Lee Boggs, Revolution and Evolution, NYU Press ?ISBN, page 134

     Mao launched the struggle against the vulgar materialist tendency within the party as early as 1937.

   • 1997, S. Onslow, Backbench Debate within the Conservative Party and its Influence on British Foreign Policy, 1948-57, Springer ?ISBN, page 234

     In stark contrast to the Europeanist tendency within the party and the Suez Group, this group had a short history.

   • 2013, Richard Gillespie, Lourdes Lopez Nieto, Michael Waller, Factional Politics and Democratization, Routledge ?ISBN, page 83

     It reinforced the position of the conformist tendency within the party, since the majority of the candidates were old politicians, many of them members of Papandreou's centre-left CU faction back in the mid-1960s.

Synonyms

• inclination
• disposition
• propensity
• penchant
• trend

Derived terms

• multitendency

Translations