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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

curious.

Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈkjʊə.ɹi.əs/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkjɔː-/Received-Pronunciation/ˈkjɵːɹɪjəs/British, Southern, Standard/ˈkjoː-/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.

    Young children are naturally curious about the world and everything in it.
  2. Caused by curiosity.

  3. Leading one to ask questions about; somewhat odd, out of the ordinary, or unusual.

    The platypus is a curious creature, with fur like a mammal and a beak like a bird.
  4. Clipping of bi-curious.

    abbreviation · alt-of · clipping
  5. Interested in entering a romantic or sexual relationship with a specified group.

    in-compounds
  6. Careful, fastidious, particular; (specifically) demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.

    obsolete
  7. Carefully or artfully constructed; made with great elegance or skill.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English curious, from Old French curius, from Latin cūriōsus. The English word is cognate with Italian curioso, Occitan curios, Portuguese curioso, and Spanish curioso. Displaced native Old English firwitġeorn.

adj
  1. Containing or pertaining to trivalent curium.

    not-comparable · rare
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree English curi(um) Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h₃édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Old French -usbor. Middle English -ous English -ous English curious From curi(um) + -ous.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.