- present participle of divert.
diverting
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of diverting
Explanation
Something that's diverting is a pleasant distraction. A movie on a long bus ride — even a bad movie — is diverting. The adjective diverting describes anything that grabs your attention, especially if it's entertaining and distracts from something less interesting. Spending time with a friend can be diverting when you're waiting to hear important news or get the results of a big test, and a good, diverting book is the perfect thing to take on a boring train commute. Diverting stems from the verb divert, or "distract," from its Latin root, divertere, "to turn in different directions."
Vocabulary lists containing diverting
A Wrinkle in Time
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12 More Interesting Ways to Say "interesting"
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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Fery, a virtually unknown British wild card with a triple-digit ranking, has become the emotional heartbeat of Wimbledon while legitimately diverting some national attention from England’s World Cup quest.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 9, 2026
I assumed that after diverting batches, the farm discarded them.
From Salon • Jun. 22, 2026
Ghaffar breached his fiduciary duty by diverting the opportunity to invest in the firm—initially designed for Paulson—to himself, the arbitrator found.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 17, 2026
Elon Musk is going all-in on artificial intelligence, but his xAI has been gobbling up SpaceX’s cash, diverting attention away from the rocket-launch and satellite operations.
From MarketWatch • May 21, 2026
Worms filled the inside, diverting Matt with their wiggly bodies.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
