Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - tendency

 noun  (plural -cies)  Etymology: Medieval Latin tendentia, from Latin tendent-, tendens, present participle of tendere  Date: 1628  1.  a. direction or approach toward a place, object, effect, or limit  b. a proneness to a particular kind of thought or action  2.  a. the purposeful trend of something written or said ; aim  b. deliberate but indirect advocacy Synonyms:  ~, trend, drift, tenor, current mean movement in a particular direction. ~ implies an inclination sometimes amounting to an impelling force a general ~ toward inflation. trend applies to the general direction maintained by a winding or irregular course the long-term trend of the stock market is upward. drift may apply to a ~ determined by external forces the drift of the population away from large cities or it may apply to an underlying or obscure trend of meaning or discourse got the drift of her argument. tenor stresses a clearly perceptible direction and a continuous, undeviating course the tenor of the times. current implies a clearly defined but not necessarily unalterable course an encounter that changed the current of my life.