From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpropensitypro‧pen‧si‧ty /prəˈpensəti/ noun (plural propensities) [countable usually singular] formalOFTEN a natural tendency to behave in a particular waypropensity to do something the male propensity to fightpropensity for He seems to have a propensity for breaking things.
Examples from the Corpus
propensity• He was. a gifted man, but had a propensity for falling into bad associations.• All objects have a propensity to move in straight lines, upwards or downwards, towards their natural place.• Yet this is exactly the behavioural propensity of the id uncovered by clinical psychoanalysis.• I can tell about my propensity toward middle age spread simply by trying to fit into my double-breasted blazer.• The trouble was that George had a needling propensity for deception that could not be slaked.• The recorded figures exaggerate the increase in victimization which is occurring, mainly because of a greater public propensity to report certain crimes.• The cousin was Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures and a man with a sentimental propensity for hiring his relatives.• In turn, the propensity to marry can be measured by estimating the proportion of women still unmarried at ages 35-44.have ... propensity• All objects have a propensity to move in straight lines, upwards or downwards, towards their natural place.From Longman Business Dictionarypropensitypro‧pen‧si‧ty /prəˈpensəti/ noun (plural propensities) [countable]1a tendency to behave in a particular wayThe plastic-bodied car’s propensity to catch fire killed demand.2marginal propensity to consumeECONOMICS the relationship between a change in people’s income and the change in the amount that they spend on goodsThe marginal propensity to consume is 0.8, because for every £10 million rise in income, consumption rises by £8 million, and the marginal propensity to save is 0.2.3marginal propensity to importECONOMICS the relationship between a change in people’s income in a country, and the change in the amount that the country importsThe marginal propensity to import is 0.2, so that for every £10 million rise in income, spending on imports rises by £2 million.4marginal propensity to saveECONOMICS when there is a change in people’s income, the change in the amount that they save in relation to the amount they spendOrigin propensity (1500-1600) propense “tending” ((16-19 centuries)), from Latin, past participle of propendere “to lean toward” 