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attract

verb

Simple meaning

To draw by moral, emotional or sexual influence.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

uhtrakt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ətˈɹækt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To draw by moral, emotional or sexual influence; to engage or fix, as the mind, attention, etc.; to invite or allure.

  2. transitive

    To pull toward without touching.

  3. transitive

    To incur.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To draw by moral, emotional or sexual influence; to engage or fix, as the mind, attention, etc.; to invite or allure.

Used this way, attract is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in ethics or values contexts.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Ethics/values

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use attract

  • “Her good looks attract the stares of many men.”verb
  • “The gravitational pull of a planet attracts other bodies.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

attract attention

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • attractornounPerson or profession

    An entertainer who attracts large audiences.

  • attractiveadjectiveDerived adjective

    Pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm.

  • attractivelyadverbDerived adverb

    In a beautiful manner.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • attractionnounRelated term

    The force by which one object attracts another.

  • attractivenessnounRelated term

    The quality of arousing interest.

  • attractive forcenounRelated term

    The force by which one object attracts another.

  • attractive nuisancenounRelated term

    Anything on your premises that might attract children into danger or harm.

  • attractive featurenounRelated term

    A characteristic that provides pleasure and attracts.

  • tourist attractionnounRelated term

    A characteristic that attracts tourists.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to draw by moral or emotional or sexual influence

draw

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.