engaging
verb
Form of engage , present participle of engage.
Simple meaning
To engross or hold the attention of.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehngayjingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛnˈɡeɪdʒɪŋ
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
present participle of engage
To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
present participle of engage
To enter into conflict with (an enemy).
present participle of engage
To interact socially.
present participle of engage
To enter into battle.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To engross or hold the attention of; to keep busy or occupied.
Used this way, engaging is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Carry out or participate in an activity.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A hostile meeting of opposing military forces in the course of a war.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.