conditioning
Americannoun
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conditionings
plural
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Also called operant conditioning, instrumental conditioning. a process of changing behavior by rewarding or punishing a subject each time an action is performed until the subject associates the action with pleasure or distress.
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Also called classical conditioning, Pavlovian conditioning, respondent conditioning. a process in which a stimulus that was previously neutral, as the sound of a bell, comes to evoke a particular response, as salivation, by being repeatedly paired with another stimulus that normally evokes the response, as the taste of food.
noun
adjective
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Origin of conditioning
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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He didn’t allow air conditioning in his office, so his traders dripped with sweat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
In the last 25 years, a new roof was installed, as well as air conditioning units and water heaters.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
"Had I known that the air conditioning wasn't working, having gone on river cruises before, I wouldn't have gone," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
He said passengers were initially offered a 15% refund due to the air conditioning problems, which was increased to 40% when the cruise was cut short on the penultimate day.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
A Ford Mustang this was, maroon, with cream-colored bucket seats and air conditioning.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
At both, the luxury treatment begins with a detailed scalp analysis followed by a neck and shoulder massage and repeated shampooings and conditionings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2025
If we are to have a more rationalized form of social control, then, it will undoubtedly take into consideration the necessity of forming the socially desirable conditionings of the emotional life.
From Taboo and Genetics A Study of the Biological, Sociological and Psychological Foundation of the Family by Melvin Moses Knight
Francis Galton, pioneer student of the conditionings of human faculty, left an interesting study of the visualising capacity, so far as it could be attacked by the statistical method.
From The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis Berman M.D.
He sensed the change that possessed her, the struggling of new emotions, the shattering of imposed concepts and conditionings and their realigning to shape a new personality, a new person.
From Assignment's End by Roger D. Aycock
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
