curiosities

Only some meanings of curiosity can take a plural. Inquisitiveness, the trait, is uncountable: we speak of a child's curiosity, not curiosities. The plural belongs to the object meaning, the rare or strange things a shop or cabinet holds, and to an obsolete meaning of fine, delicate workmanship. So curiosities almost always means things that arouse interest rather than the urge to know.

The obsolete spelling curiositie leaves no trace in its plural. Because -ie and -y both become -ies, this form is spelled exactly like the modern plural. Nothing in the word itself tells the two apart, so a reader meets it simply as the ordinary plural of curiosity. The older spelling is visible only in the singular.