different between knack vs tendency

English

Etymology

Use as "special skill" from 1580. Possibly from 14th century Middle English krak (“a sharp blow”), knakke, knakken, from Middle Low German, by onomatopoeia. Latter cognate to German knacken (“to crack”). See also crack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /næk/
• Audio (UK)

• Rhymes: -æk

Noun

knack (plural knacks)

1. A readiness in performance; aptness at doing something. [from 1580]

   Synonyms: skill, facility, dexterity

   • 2005, Plato, Sophist. Translation by Lesley Brown. 254a.

     The sophist runs for cover to the darkness of what is not and attaches himself to it by some knack of his;
2. A petty contrivance; a toy.

   Synonyms: plaything, knickknack, toy

3. Something performed, or to be done, requiring aptness and dexterity. [from mid 14th c.]

   Synonyms: trick, device

Derived terms

• knackless

Translations

Verb

knack (third-person singular simple present knacks, present participle knacking, simple past and past participle knacked)

1. (obsolete, Britain, dialect) To crack; to make a sharp, abrupt noise; to chink.
2. To speak affectedly.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Translations

References

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