enticing
Americanadjective
Usage
What does enticing mean? Enticing means having the effect of attracting, tempting, or drawing people in. Things that are described as enticing produce desire or attraction. The word is especially used to describe things that appeal to the senses. But something can be enticing for other reasons, as in The job offer was enticing due to the big salary increase, but I didn’t think the work would be fulfilling. The adjective enticing comes from the continuous tense (-ing form) of the verb entice, meaning to attract, allure, or tempt. (Entice is sometimes confused with the verb incite, which means to encourage, urge, prompt, or provoke someone to do something, especially something bad. Incite is usually used more negatively than entice.)Something that’s described as enticing is viewed as positive and desirous by the person whom it has enticed, but the word itself sometimes implies that such a thing serves to tempt people to do something that perhaps they shouldn’t, as in That chocolate is enticing, but I vowed to give up sweets for a while. Example: The enticing aroma of the roasted nuts draws people to the street cart.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of enticing
Explanation
Something enticing is exciting and intriguing. Enticing things are tempting and make you want to have them. When a thing is enticing, it's kind of like it's saying "You want this, don't you? Yes you do!" The goal of almost all advertising is to be enticing — to try to entice you to buy the product. Any small glimpse or snippet of something that you like is probably enticing. Menus are another thing that are supposed to be enticing — you should want to order the food. If a movie trailer isn't enticing, then it didn't do its job.
Vocabulary lists containing enticing
Sugar Changed the World
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 12
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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
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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.
A small shelter was placed in the middle of the trap that proved very enticing for Luna.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
Sure, for people with no health insurance, this is an enticing opportunity to effectively pay one month of coverage to get the silhouette of an annual physical, except without an actual doctor present.
From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2026
WSJ | Buy Side: These pepper mills help you add depth, flavor and enticing aroma to your dishes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
The positions of the full-backs help by enticing narrow opponents to be stretched wider.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Even so, plenty of personal pictures and videos of gleanings are uploaded to the Thunderhead, providing a guerilla record—which is so much more exciting and enticing than anything official.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
