Definition of "predisposition" [pre•dis•po•si•tion]

• The state of being predisposed; tendency, inclination, or susceptibility. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Human beings come into the world with a predisposition to believe in supernatural phenomena — and this predisposition is a by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry"
• "And two: this predisposition is an incidental by-product of cognitive functioning gone awry."
• "Hitchens, a wily wordsmith, ever too unpredictable for predisposition, is a wild card by any measure who in a talk-show throwaway once referred to Chávez as an 'oil-rich clown.'"