tempting
verb
Form of tempt , present participle of tempt.
Simple meaning
To provoke someone to do wrong.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehmptingSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛmptɪŋ
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 tempt
To provoke someone to do wrong, especially by promising a reward; to entice.
present participle of tempt
Provoke someone to do something through (often false or exaggerated) promises or persuasion
present participle of tempt
To provoke something; to court.
present participle of tempt
To attract; to allure.
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, tempting 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.
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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.