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.
Obiang's government has also been accused of corruption and diverting the country's oil revenues for the benefit of the elite, which it denies.
From BBC • Apr. 22, 2026
Adding payments directly on X also opens the company up to native social commerce that bypasses traditional e-commerce checkout flows, potentially diverting volume from PayPal’s “crown jewel,” its branded-checkout button, according to Dolev.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 16, 2026
A solution was found: Lebanon would first have to make a splashy gesture toward peace, diverting attention from Iran’s demand.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
As it currently stands, road use fees fall short of fully funding roadway systems in most states already, and governments are currently diverting funds from other sources.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 1, 2026
The emigrants confused the gods by diverting their curses, misleading them with crooked streets and false names.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
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.
