curiosity

noun

1. (uncountable)Inquisitiveness; the tendency to ask and learn about things by asking questions, investigating, or exploring.

   “It was the first time that the lawyer had been received in that part of his friend's quarters; and he eyed the dingy windowless structure with curiosity, and gazed round with a distasteful sense of strangeness as he crossed the theatre, […]”

   “"Certainly there is nothing wrong with Alvin's intelligence, but many of the things that should concern him seem to be a matter of complete indifference. On the other hand, he shows a morbid curiosity regarding subjects which we do not generally discuss."”

   “They learn that reading, besides being something one does at school, is also something one can do on one's own, for fun, to satisfy curiosity, or even to "expand one's horizons.””

2. (countable, uncountable)A unique or extraordinary object which arouses interest.

   “He put the strangely shaped rock in his curiosity cabinet.”

   “[The room] was adorned with a great number of nicknacks and curiosities, which might have engaged the attention of a virtuoso.”

   “The loss of his tye-periwig and laced hat, which were curiosities of the kind, did not at all contribute to the improvement of the picture […].”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Careful, delicate construction; fine workmanship, delicacy of building.

   “wee built a homely thing like a barne, set upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth, so also was the walls; the best of our houses of the like curiosity, but the most part farre much worse workmanship […]”