Curiosity

Noun

 * 1)  Careful, delicate construction; fine workmanship, delicacy of building.
 * 2) *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 [...].
 * 1) Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring.
 * 2) * 1956 — Arthur C. Clarke, The City and the Stars, p 39:
 * "Certainly there is nothing wrong with Alvin's intelligence, but many of the things that should concern him seem to be a matter of complete indifference. On the other hand, he shows a morbid curiosity regarding subjects which we do not generally discuss."
 * 1) *1886, ,
 * 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
 * 1) A unique or extraordinary object which arouses interest.
 * He kept the strangely shaped rock as a curiosity.

Synonyms

 * inquisitiveness

Antonyms

 * ignorance

Derived terms

 * curiosity killed the cat

Related terms

 * curious

Adjectives
high; sympathetic; logical; healthy; frank; profound; sublime; respectful; natural; reverent; indifferent; lively; breathless; instant; insatiable; passionate; intense; .intelligent; vague; sedate; pregnant; half-ironic; mingled; eager; oblique; romantic ardent; unhealthy; heartless; inflamed intellectual; jealous; ethnological; indefa¬tigable; laboratory; half-cunning; sheer calculating;   impertinent;  kind;  latent amused; overwhelming; excited; persevering; overpowering;  vacant; tremulous typographical; rude; beneficial; blunt; morbid; prying; laudable; irresistible; imperious; unenvious; enlightened; gluttonous languid; anthropological; idle; discontented; unobtrusive; innocent; frightened; contemptuous; unquenchable; ghoulish; sullen regretful; literary; kindred; weak; mutual; obtrusive; ill-bred; endless; sharp delighted; vulgar; childlike; indolent; unsated; gratified; evident; noble; unallayed baffled; passionate; geographical; prejudiced; piqued; chastened; reluctant; persistent; polite; burning; malicious; cordial professional;   importunate;  considerable great;   rampant;  immense;  inordinate widespread; untiring; undiminished; penetrating; unappeased; quenchless; devouring; itching; momentary; passing; detached; mild; waning; small; faint; stirring; lazy; undisguised; growing; vast; objec¬tive; troubled; worried; timid; nervous; furtive; covetous; indecent; greedy; gruesome; avid; prurient; burdensome; leering; sinister;  forbidden; impious; perverse; eclectic;   visual; disoriented;  titillating; gaping; startled; sudden, scared.

Verbs
admit—; arouse—; awaken—; blame—; burst with—; cater to—; develop—; devour with—-; display—; evince—; excite—; exhibit—; experience—; feed—; gratify —; manifest—; move by—; overcome—; pique—; practice—- prompt by—; repel—; repress—; satisfy—; seize with—; spur on by—; steam with—; —grows; —impels; —motivates; —prevails.

Thesaurus
abnormality, amazement, anomaly, ardor, astonishing thing, astonishment, bauble, bric-a-brac, cathexis, concern, concernment, concupiscence, conversation piece, curio, desideration, desire, drive, eagerness, enthusiasm, exception, fancy, fantasy, freak, gazingstock, gewgaw, hope, horme, improbability, inquisitiveness, intellectual curiosity, interest, interestedness, interference, intrusiveness, libido, lust for learning, marvel, marvelment, matter of interest, meddlesomeness, mind, miracle, monstrosity, museum piece, need, nonesuch, nosiness, objet d'art, oddity, passion, phenomenon, pleasure, pleasure principle, prodigiosity, prodigy, prying, questioning, quite a thing, rarity, regard, sensation, sexual desire, sight, snooping, something else, special interest, spectacle, strange thing, stunner, thirst for knowledge, trinket, urge, want, wanting, will, will and pleasure, wish, wish fulfillment, wonder, wonderful thing, wonderment

Etymology
From curiouseté:, from  curiositatem:, from curiosus:.

Translations

 * Azeri: maraq
 * Basque: jakinmin
 * Bulgarian: любопитство, любознателност
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: ,
 * Czech:
 * Danish: nysgerrighed
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German: ,
 * Greek:
 * Hebrew:
 * Icelandic:
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: 好奇心 (こうきしん kōkishin), 珍奇 (ちんき chinki)


 * Korean:
 * Kurdish:, hewes, , tatêl, tatol, çavzêlkî, , xemxwerî
 * Latin:
 * Lithuanian: smalsumas, žingeidumas
 * Macedonian:
 * Old English:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Russian:
 * Serbian: znatiželjnost, znatiželja , radoznalost , ljubopitljivost , ljubopitnost , ljubopitstvo
 * Slovene:
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Telugu: కుతూహలం


 * Bulgarian: рядкост, куриоз
 * Czech:
 * Dutch:
 * French:
 * Finnish:
 * Finnish:


 * German: ,
 * Romanian:
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: занимљивост, куриозитет
 * Roman: zanimljivost, kuriozitet