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.
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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)
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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
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hypnotizessimple
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have hypnotizedperfect
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has hypnotizedperfect
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am hypnotizingprogressive
-
are hypnotizingprogressive
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is hypnotizingprogressive
-
have been hypnotizingperfect progressive
-
has been hypnotizingperfect progressive
Past
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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
Freak the Mighty
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Persepolis
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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
I knew what she meant: I’d only gotten acupuncture once, despite her promise that bodywork could “unstick” the trauma; I refused to let Dr. M hypnotize me.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2024
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
The goal wasn’t to hypnotize an audience through an emotional narrative.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2023
I had to convince myself, visualize Fay, hypnotize myself into believing that the woman sitting beside me was Fay.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
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
Several times in recent weeks, the pitcher has followed this new routine, slipping into a mind-numbing trance as mental skills coach Brent Walker hypnotizes him — literally — while seated by his side.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2023
Their drumming almost hypnotizes me; I can sit there for an hour listening to them.
From New York Times ● Jan. 1, 2023
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
Like the fish sort of hypnotizes you into not throwing the harpoon.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
I’m so hypnotized by stories of female friendship, especially the way they complicate and evolve over time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 30, 2026
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
They alternated between huge smiles and hypnotized stares toward videoboards as the “One Shining Moment” highlight montage that is a tournament-capping tradition began to play.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 20, 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
But the rest of them were too frightened or too hypnotized by the whole affair to make a move.
From "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl
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
It’s this hypnotizing thing that I would observe and take note of whenever I was on the same route.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025
Stewart slowly waved his finger across his face, as if hypnotizing viewers.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2025
Kaa the python is dangerous and hypnotizing but also hung up on memories of captivity in a zoo.
From New York Times ● Nov. 17, 2023
Contemptuous of Oppenheimer’s arguments against the Super, he depicted Oppenheimer as a Svengali ruthlessly hypnotizing some of the world’s most sophisticated scientists into joining his opposition campaign.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
