entranced
Americanadjective
-
filled with delight or wonder; enraptured; captivated.
The two last songs soulfully bring the album to a lilting climax, leaving the entranced listener clamoring for more.
-
put into a trance; hypnotized.
She honestly believes she spoke to her dead mother with the help of an entranced medium.
verb
Other Word Forms
- unentranced adjective
Etymology
Origin of entranced
First recorded in 1590–1600; entrance 2 + -ed 2 for the adjective senses; entrance 2 + -ed 1 for the verb sense
Explanation
If you're entranced, you are charmed and mesmerized by something. An entranced theater-goer might gasp out loud when something scary happens on stage. When you're entranced by something, it's got you under its spell. In fact, the earliest definition of the word was "put into a trance" or "put under a spell," with the roots en-, "put in," and trance, "state of suspense" or "state of insensibility to mundane things," from the Old French word transe, "fear of coming evil." The meaning of entranced has shifted over the years to be more positive — more "charmed" than "cursed."
Vocabulary lists containing entranced
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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.
The poetry is so-so, but programmers are entranced by its coding skill.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 24, 2026
A protective barrier prevented her from entering, and the deteriorating balconies made it look a bit unsafe, but peeking through the windows, she was entranced by the yellow kitchen.
From Slate • Feb. 1, 2026
This might not be the last test where Beijing leans on its strength in work-a-day industrial semiconductors while Silicon Valley is entranced by whiz-bang artificial-intelligence-driven breakthroughs, though.
From Barron's • Nov. 6, 2025
Without singing a note or swinging a weapon, one character from “KPop Demon Hunters” has entranced the audience off pure vibes alone.
From Salon • Jul. 2, 2025
To read her, who so entranced and delighted and challenged him?
From "The Reader" by Traci Chee
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.
