hypnotize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
hypnotizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hypnotized,
past participle, past
-
hypnotizing
present participle
-
to put in the hypnotic state.
-
to influence, control, or direct completely, as by personal charm, words, or domination.
The speaker hypnotized the audience with his powerful personality.
-
to frighten or startle so that movement is impossible.
The headlights hypnotized the deer and it just stood staring at the oncoming car.
verb (used without object)
-
hypnotizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hypnotized,
past participle, past
-
hypnotizing
present participle
verb
-
to induce hypnosis in (a person)
-
to charm or beguile; fascinate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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hypnotizabilitynoun
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hypnotizationnoun
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hypnotizernoun
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rehypnotizeverb (used with object)
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unhypnotizeverb (used with object)
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half-hypnotizedadjective
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hypnotizableadjective
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unhypnotizableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hypnotizesimple
-
hypnotizessimple
-
have hypnotizedperfect
-
has hypnotizedperfect
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am hypnotizingprogressive
-
are hypnotizingprogressive
-
is hypnotizingprogressive
-
have been hypnotizingperfect progressive
-
has been hypnotizingperfect progressive
Past
-
hypnotizedsimple
-
had hypnotizedperfect
-
was hypnotizingprogressive
-
were hypnotizingprogressive
-
had been hypnotizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hypnotize
Explanation
When you hypnotize someone, you draw him into a mental state that is receptive to suggestion. If you are looking to break a bad habit like cigarette smoking, ask someone to hypnotize you. To hypnotize is to induce a calm, focused state in one's self or in another person. The state is called hypnosis, and a person who can do this for someone else is a hypnotist. The word hypnotize comes from the Greek hypnotikos, "inclined to sleep or putting to sleep," and popular ideas of hypnosis reflect a kind of half-asleep state. In reality, when you hypnotize someone, the person remains awake and intently focused.
Vocabulary lists containing hypnotize
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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:
Watching a trickster hypnotize someone in a live performance might impress you.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
The metallic colors on stage will blur and shine and hypnotize in HD just as well as they did live, and it will feel like luxuriating in a mixed metaphor just as it did live.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
I assume he will now hypnotize himself in front of the nearest screen during breakfast instead of asking questions about what he just read.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2023
Called the Lasso of Truth, it can hypnotize those in its constraints, return memories, squeeze out the truth or protect people.
From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2022
Though I can hypnotize the mafia and raise the dead at will, I seem incapable of erasing the circles beneath my eyes.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Others jump on Instagram or TikTok to proclaim that they always hated kittens until one perfect little love nugget materializes at their doorstep and hypnotizes them into bending the knee.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2024
And in the short story The Euphio Question, an opportunistic businessman capitalizes on an astronomer’s bizarre discovery to create a “euphoriaphone” that hypnotizes society into complacency.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 10, 2022
This soul-scarring movie unfolds as though under a trancelike spell of its own making, one that disorients as much as it hypnotizes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2020
“It’s in nonsense language; it makes no sense at all. It’s mumbo-jumbo. But it’s mumbo-jumbo that hypnotizes people. It dazzles and entertains, even though she is saying nothing.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2019
Like the fish sort of hypnotizes you into not throwing the harpoon.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
Adrift, alone and haunted by guilt about that incident in her past, she becomes hypnotized by Peter’s superficially rational-sounding ideas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
And Janice Franklin now said she and her sister had both been hypnotized to enhance their supposed recollections, and had both lied in court when they denied it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2024
How deeply someone can be hypnotized -- known as hypnotizability -- appears to be a stable trait that changes little throughout adulthood, much like personality and IQ.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 4, 2024
Since then, sumptuous, epic nature documentaries have proliferated, and televised opportunities to be hypnotized by the majesty of nature abound.
From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
I think he hypnotized her, be-cause Beth Ann sat down slowly.
From "Walk Two Moons" by Sharon Creech
For some the answer is easy–especially now that surfing property sites has become as hypnotizing as scrolling through Instagram or TikTok.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
Stewart slowly waved his finger across his face, as if hypnotizing viewers.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2025
The script’s ridiculous rationale — which our hero repeatedly intones like he’s hypnotizing us to believe it — is that certain beekeepers have pledged to prevent colony collapse, both apoidea and homo sapien.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2024
Though we hustled through the park for Re’s sake, I found the hills of spindly hoodoo spires quite hypnotizing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2023
It’s so hypnotizing that I find myself speaking without even realizing it.
From "Finding Junie Kim" by Ellen Oh
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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.
