tempt
verb
Simple meaning
To provoke someone to do wrong.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehmptIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛmpt
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
transitive
To provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a reward; to entice.
Provoke someone to do something through (often false or exaggerated) promises or persuasion
transitive
To provoke something; to court.
transitive
To attract; to allure.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a reward; to entice.
Used this way, tempt is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries warmth, so it reads as personal rather than detached.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Hopeful and forward-looking
- Usage feel
- Warm and expressive
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use tempt
- “We were tempted by the delicious-looking food.”verb
- “The window displays tempted the shoppers.”verb
- “St. Anthony was tempted in the desert.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Something that seduces or has the quality to seduce.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Chief spirit of evil and adversary of God.
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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.