trend

tendency, trend, drift, tenor, current mean movement in a particular direction. tendency implies an inclination sometimes amounting to an impelling force.

• • a general tendency toward inflation

trend applies to the general direction maintained by a winding or irregular course.

• • the long-term trend of the stock market is upward

drift may apply to a tendency determined by external forces

• • the drift of the population away from large cities

or it may apply to an underlying or obscure trend of meaning or discourse.

• • got the drift of her argument

tenor stresses a clearly perceptible direction and a continuous, undeviating course.

• • the tenor of the times

current implies a clearly defined but not necessarily unalterable course.

• • an encounter that changed the current of my life