different between tendency vs weakness

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

English

Alternative forms

• weakenes (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English weykenesse; equivalent to weak +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wi?k.n?s/

Noun

weakness (countable and uncountable, plural weaknesses)

1. (uncountable) The condition of being weak.

2. (countable) An inadequate quality; fault
3. (countable) A special fondness or desire.

Synonyms

• (condition of being weak): frailty, powerlessness, vincibility, vulnerability
• (fault): fault, defect, flaw, hole

Antonyms

• (condition of being weak): strength, durability, invincibility, powerfulness
• (fault): strength, forte

Translations

Further reading

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