curious
Word family
Synonym discussion
Sense: adjective/1
Curious, inquisitive, nosy, interested, and eager all relate to wanting to know more, but they differ in tone. Curious is neutral and broad — it simply describes a desire to learn or discover. Inquisitive is more formal and often implies a habit of asking detailed questions. Nosy is negative and informal — it means prying into other people's private affairs. Interested is milder and more general; you can be interested in a subject without actively investigating it. Eager suggests enthusiasm or impatience to learn. For example: 'A curious child opened every kitchen drawer to see what was inside.' 'The reporter was inquisitive about the politician's past.' 'Don't be so nosy — that letter is private.' 'She was interested in the talk but did not ask any questions.' 'The class was eager to learn about volcanoes and earthquakes.'
Common collocations
Etymology
Curious comes from the Latin word 'cūriōsus', which meant 'careful, diligent, eager to know'. Its root is 'cūra', meaning 'care' or 'concern'. The word passed into English through Old French 'curios' in the early 1300s. For centuries it only carried the 'eager to know' meaning; by the 1600s it had also taken on the sense of 'strange or unusual' — the idea being that things worth being curious about are often out of the ordinary.