fascinated
Americanadjective
-
having the attention attracted and held by a person or thing having unique power or charm, unusual character, etc.; enthralled or captivated.
The nature trail guide opened one of the boxes to let the fascinated onlookers view two baby bluebirds inside.
-
strongly interested or intrigued by something.
I'm speaking now not as a lawyer, just as a fascinated observer of mankind.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of fascinated
Explanation
When you're fascinated, you're hypnotized, mesmerized, spellbound, and transfixed — totally absorbed by something. There are two ways to be fascinated: You can be fascinated by something happening right now, like an interesting new video game you're playing. Other fascinations are more long term, like a scientist who devotes his life to studying birds because he's fascinated by them. Things that make you fascinated have to be so interesting and so intriguing that it feels like they have a magic grip on your attention span.
Vocabulary lists containing fascinated
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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.
As an ecologist who has studied chimpanzees and lemurs in the field in Uganda and Madagascar, I am fascinated by the environments that shaped our primate ancestors.
From Science Daily • Jun. 20, 2026
"People are fascinated by the kind of people that go into this line of work and what kind of people come out of it at the end."
From BBC • Jun. 20, 2026
He’d become fascinated by Penn after seeing a visionary plan for its resurrection drafted by architect Vishaan Chakrabarti in the New York Times.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 13, 2026
In high school, she became fascinated with engineering, later studying mechanical engineering at Northwestern University.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 11, 2026
I was fascinated by how he could direct the thinnest, most even spray of water from his mouth onto the clothes he was pressing.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
