inclination.

1. A tendency or desire to act, think, or feel in a particular way.

2. The degree to which a surface, line, or orbit is tilted relative to a reference.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• natural inclination
• inclination to withdraw

On the page

Her first inclination was to refuse.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / human behavior. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular inclination; plural inclinations. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.