temptation
noun
Simple meaning
The condition of being tempted.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehmtayshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
tɛmˈteɪʃən
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.
noun
The condition of being tempted.
Something attractive, tempting or seductive; an inducement, seducement, or enticement.
The act of influencing by exciting hope or desire
The act of tempting.
Pressure applied to one's thinking designed to create wrong emotions which will eventually lead to wrong actions.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Formality
- Technical
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The condition of being tempted.
Used this way, temptation 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
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use temptation
- “He felt the temptation and his will power weakened.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.