Meaning of captivate in English

captivate

/ˈkæp.tɪ.veɪt/ us

/ˈkæp.tə.veɪt/

to hold the attention of someone by being extremely interesting, exciting, pleasant, or attractive:

With her beauty and charm, she captivated film audiences everywhere.

Synonyms

beguile literary
bewitch
capture 
charm 
enchant
entrance literary
fascinate

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Attracting and tempting

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Making people excited and interested

Related word

captivating

(Definition of captivate from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

captivate | American Dictionary

captivate

verb [ T ]

/ˈkæp·təˌveɪt/

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to hold the attention of someone by being extremely interesting, exciting, charming, or attractive:

Her singing captivated audiences everywhere.

(Definition of captivate from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of captivate

captivate

Many will be captivating and valuable teaching aids.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These fascinating musical profiles of burlesques reinforce the notion that the works were designed to captivate a diverse audience.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

All of us are captivated by media representations of scenes we would never look at twice in real life.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They certainly made their responses captivating and illuminating.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Like all masterpieces, this single movement for large orchestra is both lucid and unfathomable; both captivating and overwhelming.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

An immediate and noticeable difference from the earlier editions is the many engaging photographs to captivate the reader.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Although not a primary aim of the book, many of the images are simply captivating by the intricate complexity of their form, and beguiling patterning.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, the current movement is not just remarkable for its virtuoso treatment of formal and generic expectation: the material is captivating throughout.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Second, there is a captivating quality to the sensual pleasure afforded the listener by the technical excellence and gloss of the production techniques.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He would capture the heart of the young woman who has captivated his own.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Theoretically, it is not an easy read, but her evocative contextual descriptions are captivating and fluent, drawing the reader in.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I found the ethical issues discussed utterly captivating.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

While she may well have been captivated by his views, a critical attitude would have been more revealing.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, the material works well to illustrate the mystery of human language and will likely captivate readers, particularly those with little or no background on the subject.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I was totally captivated with the hypothesis that there was some built-in syllabus or innate language acquisition device that would account for the common features of learners' interlanguage.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of captivate?

Translations of captivate

in Chinese (Traditional)

使著迷, 迷住, 吸引…

Meaning of captivate in English

Related word

captivate | American Dictionary

Examples of captivate

Translations of captivate

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