fascination
Americannoun
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fascinations
plural
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the power or action of fascinating.
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the state or an instance of being fascinated.
They watched in fascination.
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a fascinating quality; powerful attraction; charm.
the fascination of foreign travel.
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Cards. a form of solitaire.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fascination
1595–1605; < Latin fascinātiōn- (stem of fascinātiō ) a bewitching. See fascinate, -ion
Explanation
If diamondback turtles hold a certain fascination for you, you know everything there is to know about them, you talk about them all the time, and maybe you've embroidered one on your pillowcase. Fascination is an irresistible attraction. Be careful to use the right preposition: you've got a fascination with handsome princes, but handsome princes hold a fascination for you. When you have a fascination, it's as if you're bewitched, and — what do you know? — the word goes back to the Latin fascinare, which means "cast a spell on."
Vocabulary lists containing fascination
The Cay
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"The Witch Boy" by Molly Knox Ostertag
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Schooled
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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.
See Examples For:
"All summer long, I've been picking up bits of drones washed up on the beach," added Baronov, a mechanical engineer by training who harbours a fascination with military hardware.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
Eventually, he pushed his fascination to the breaking point.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
But the public fascination is about more than just one officer.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
Four years ago, Times columnist Nicolas Goldberg wrote an opinion piece about his fascination with what to him sounded like a profound project about the meaning of time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
His fascination with Pet was overshadowed easily by his fear of Pet’s power, of the death chafing just inside it.
From "Pet" by Akwaeke Emezi
But one of the main fascinations of Mr. Goode’s quasi-period piece is the ingenious ways his subjects found to circumvent the law, rationalize their crimes and destroy that which they claimed to love.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
Maybe the only purpose in any of this is to prolong morbid fascinations, to twist the knife.
From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026
Geometric order and water’s fluid movement were special fascinations.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2024
One of the eternal fascinations of Test cricket, especially in these Bazballistic times, is that there are almost infinite ways for interpreting what has happened.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2024
Mrs. Garlov and Theodore Ancker were the only persons who did not seem quite captivated by the fascinations of the fair Aurora; every one else was enchanted with her, Francisca most of all.
From The Danes Sketched by Themselves. Vol. II (of 3) A Series of Popular Stories by the Best Danish Authors by Various
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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.
