10 November 2015

tendentious

[ten-den-shuh s]

adjective

1. having or showing a definite tendency, bias, or purpose:
a tendentious novel.

Also, tendencious, tendential [ten-den-shuh l] (Show IPA).

Origin of tendentious

Medieval Latin
1895-1900; < Medieval Latin tendenti (a) tendency + -ous

Related forms

tendentiously, adverb
tendentiousness, noun

Dictionary.com

Examples from the Web for tendentious

Contemporary Examples

Again and again, they delivered bloviating, tendentious monologues and then cut Hagel off when he tried to reply.
Hagel Backs Down
Peter Beinart
January 31, 2013

Oh, at this distance almost any answer is likely to be tendentious.
The Stacks: How The Berlin Wall Inspired John le Carré’s First Masterpiece
John le Carré
November 7, 2014

Bereft of serious arguments, anti-Obama types resort to tendentious claims about symbolic slights.
Of Obama and Bagels
Raphael Magarik
July 24, 2012

Historical examples

The fundamental cause of this divergence of indices lies in the fact that Soviet industry has created a series of new branches unknown to tzarist Russia, but a supplementary cause is to be found in the tendentious manipulation of statistics.
Leon Trotsky
The Revolution Betrayed.
1937

Anagram

detention us
duties tonne
denote units
unite stoned

Today’s quote

Fear, prejudice, malice, and the love of approbation bribe a thousand men where gold bribes one.

– Robert Green Ingersoll

On this day

10 November 1919 – birth of Mikhail Kalashnikov, Soviet Union hero, inventor of the world’s most popular assault weapon, the AK-47, or ‘Kalashnikov’. The AK-47 stood for Kalashnikov Assault, 1947, the year it was designed. He was awarded the ‘Hero of Russia’ medal as well as Lenin and Stalin prizes. Kalashnikov invented the AK-47 to protect the national borders of the Soviet Union. The AK-47 has a simple design, which makes it very reliable and easy to replicate. Kalashnikov hadn’t patented the design internationally. As a result, of the estimated 100 million AK-47s in the world today, it is believed that at least half are copies. Although his weapon has been favoured by armies and guerillas across the globe, Kalashnikov claimed he never lost sleep over the numbers of people killed by it. He always maintained that he invented it to protect the ‘Fatherland’s borders’. He did however, rue the use of it by child soldiers. Kalashnikov was a World War II veteran who was wounded in 1941. While recovering in hospital he conceived the design. Died 23 December 2013.

10 November 1969 – Sesame Street debuts on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), featuring muppets by Jim Henson. It is one of the longest running tv shows in history and has been highly successful at increasing the literacy and numeracy skills of children.

10 November 1982 – Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet President, dies in office from a heart attack.