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PARTIALITY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives
Synonyms:
partiality; partisanship
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("partiality" is a kind of...):
disposition; inclination; tendency (an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "partiality"):
anthropocentricity; anthropocentrism (an inclination to evaluate reality exclusively in terms of human values)
ethnocentrism (belief in the superiority of one's own ethnic group)
Eurocentrism (belief in the preeminence of Europe and the Europeans)
bias; preconception; prejudice (a partiality that prevents objective consideration of an issue or situation)
tilt (a slight but noticeable partiality)
localism; provincialism; sectionalism (a partiality for some particular place)
unfairness (partiality that is not fair or equitable)
Antonym:
impartiality (an inclination to weigh both views or opinions equally)
Derivation:
partial (showing favoritism)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A predisposition to like something
Example:
she had dismissed him quite brutally, relegating him to the status of a passing fancy, or less
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("partiality" is a kind of...):
liking (a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment)
Context examples:
When I returned to London I called upon the milliner, who had recognised Straker as an excellent customer of the name of Derbyshire, who had a very dashing wife, with a strong partiality for expensive dresses.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She could not consider her partiality for Edward in so prosperous a state as Marianne had believed it.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
They are as fine healthy children as ever were seen, poor little dears! without partiality; but Mrs Charles knows no more how they should be treated—!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Having been frequently in company with him since her return, agitation was pretty well over; the agitations of former partiality entirely so.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Her partiality for this gentleman was not of recent origin; and he had been long withheld only by inferiority of situation from addressing her.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The conscience of the woman was troubled; she began to think that the deaths of her favourites was a judgement from heaven to chastise her partiality.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Here is Mr. Micawber, with a variety of qualifications, with great talent—I should say, with genius, but that may be the partiality of a wife— Traddles and I both murmured “No.”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mrs. Weston's partiality for him is very great, and, as you may suppose, most gratifying to me.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
To this I was silent out of partiality to my own kind; yet here I could plainly discover the true seeds of spleen, which only seizes on the lazy, the luxurious, and the rich; who, if they were forced to undergo the same regimen, I would undertake for the cure.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Mrs. Norris had no affection for Fanny, and no wish of procuring her pleasure at any time; but her opposition to Edmund now, arose more from partiality for her own scheme, because it was her own, than from anything else.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
