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.
After enticing Villa to step up following a series of short passes, Kinksy tended to look long for Udogie's run.
From BBC • May 4, 2026
For his part, Bell found the “nihilism” in Niall, a man desperately running from his true self and living in Ruben’s shadow, an enticing and complex character to play.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
Travel is great, and I love patronizing restaurants opened by immigrant chefs who send enticing smells and savory dishes out of their kitchens.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026
The many opportunities now to strike it big are also enticing teenagers to download these apps and take a chance.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 17, 2026
Socrates first leads Gorgias up the garden path, enticing him to agree that “rhetoric is the artificer of persuasion, having this and no other business, and that this is her crown and end.”
From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith
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.
