Intentionality

Etymology

From medieval scholastic Latin "intentio" (a stretching toward, from "in-" and "tendere," to stretch), revived as a technical term by the philosopher Franz Brentano in 1874. Note that despite the spelling, it is not primarily about "intending" to do things — it is about mental directedness.

noun · /in-ten-shuh-NAL-ih-tee/
The property of mental states of being about, or directed at, something.
What it names
The "aboutness" of the mind — that thoughts, beliefs, and desires always point beyond themselves — a puzzle at the heart of philosophy of mind.
Example
A rock is just a rock, but a belief has intentionality: it is always a belief about something.
Related idea
Intentionality is the general "aboutness" of any mental state — including beliefs, fears, and perceptions; an intention in the ordinary sense is just one such state, a plan directed at a future action — so intentionality is the wider, stranger property.