attitude

(at′ĭ-tood″, -tūd″)

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[Italian attitudine fr L. aptitudo, fitness]

1. Bodily posture or position, esp. of the limbs. A particular attitude may be a symptom of disease, e.g., the stereotyped posturing assumed by catatonics.
2. A long-standing point of view that guides or influences one’s behaviors; a predisposition to think about things and respond to them in internally consistent or patterned ways.

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