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conditioning

American  
[kuhn-dish-uh-ning] / kənˈdɪʃ ə nɪŋ /

noun

Psychology.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

conditioning British  
/ kənˈdɪʃənɪŋ /

noun

  1. psychol the learning process by which the behaviour of an organism becomes dependent on an event occurring in its environment See also classical conditioning instrumental learning

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

  1. (of a shampoo, cosmetic, etc) intended to improve the condition of something

    a conditioning rinse
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
conditioning Scientific  
/ kən-dĭsh′ə-nĭng /

  1. See classical conditioning

Other Word Forms

  • self-conditioning adjective

Etymology

Origin of conditioning

First recorded in 1915–20; condition + -ing 1

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.

But in the age of air conditioning and algorithm-driven markets, these conditions no longer apply, according to Athanasios Psarofagis, an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 29, 2026

Air conditioning removed climate as a constraint on settlement; Phoenix, Houston and Miami owe much of their current scale because of it.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

The damage was driven by chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which were widely used in refrigeration, air conditioning, and aerosol products.

From Science Daily • Apr. 16, 2026

People in Thailand have also been asked to keep air conditioning at 26-27C and to conserve fuel by carpooling or using public transport.

From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026

“And that,” put in the Director sententiously, “that is the secret of happiness and virtue—liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.”

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

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.