mesmerize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to completely capture the attention of; spellbind; fascinate.
This young pianist has mesmerized audiences with her incredible technique and range of musical expression.
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to hypnotize or put into a trancelike state; cause (someone) to be open to the power of suggestion or unable to act on their own.
According to ancient myth, the song of the sea nymphs mesmerized sailors, drawing them into disastrous waters.
-
to cause or compel through fascination or by hypnotizing.
Advertising can easily mesmerize us into thinking that wealth is the same as money and possessions.
In this game scene, the warriors do not know they’ve been mesmerized into the service of the enemy.
verb
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a former word for hypnotize
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to hold (someone) as if spellbound
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mesmerizesimple
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mesmerizessimple
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have mesmerizedperfect
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has mesmerizedperfect
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am mesmerizingprogressive
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are mesmerizingprogressive
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is mesmerizingprogressive
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have been mesmerizingperfect progressive
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has been mesmerizingperfect progressive
Past
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mesmerizedsimple
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had mesmerizedperfect
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was mesmerizingprogressive
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were mesmerizingprogressive
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had been mesmerizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mesmerize
First recorded in 1820–30; back formation from mesmerism
Explanation
You meet someone and you can’t take your eyes off them, like you are connected by an invisible cord and can’t break free. Those kinds of people have the power to mesmerize, holding your attention like you’re under hypnosis. The word mesmerize comes from the last name of 18th century German physician Franz Mesmer, who believed that all people and objects are pulled together by a strong magnetic force, later called mesmerism. If you ever start to feel mesmerized, maybe it’s because you find someone fascinating, or maybe you’ve been hypnotized by a magician. Hard to tell from here.
Vocabulary lists containing mesmerize
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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:
Stripped of his good looks and seductive accent, Colin Farrell still managed to mesmerize in “The Penguin,” which not only resuscitated an exhausted genre but took it to a new level of storytelling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2025
Still there is the natural arm talent that can mesmerize with effortless form and quick release.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 18, 2023
This was the first domestic event since CNN’s creation in 1980 to mesmerize the nation with saturation coverage by cable television.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 7, 2023
Sociologist Jean Boudrillard called the social world a "simulacrum," a hyper-reality full of noise, images, and symbols designed to mesmerize the mind and replace the boring real world.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2022
He smiles, but it doesn’t mesmerize me like the day I first saw him at his house.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
As a gorgeously conceptual art-horror object, “El Conde” frequently mesmerizes; as a proper evisceration of its subject, it can’t help but feel curiously defanged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
Showing a person's worst side mesmerizes us and promotes engagement.
From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2023
But what really mesmerizes are the windows, and the speculations they invite about who lives behind them.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
“He’s a poet who mesmerizes not by stillness but by zigs and zags, and he very much wants to take the reader with him as he island hops from idea to idea.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 31, 2020
And if we find that any material thing so mesmerizes us that we are held in fatal bondage, we are to sacrifice it.
From My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year by Jowett, John Henry
“Son of Sam just mesmerized everybody for a long period,” recalled Michael Oreskes, then a reporter for the Daily News, whereas “LaGuardia was a one-time thing that then nobody could explain, nobody could figure out.”
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
Gerardo Gómez looked mesmerized as he glanced at the wall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
And I’m sure they were mesmerized by my makeup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2026
Walking down Sixth Avenue in New York recently, I was mesmerized by a Salvation Army dude with his red donation bucket dancing to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025
He looks mesmerized with the money as I pick up my bags again.
From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak
There are plenty of movies that are objectively glacial, yet mesmerizing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
The piece slows to a mesmerizing pace as layers of sound build and subside in absorbing ways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
The Booked Babes fall quiet as they thumb through their astrology booklets, reading about destiny, transfixed by the mesmerizing promise of inevitable fate.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026
Three original songs and a mesmerizing live performance from Lady Gaga!
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
As he moved onto my other hand, either not caring what the other boys might think or just entirely oblivious to it, he continued talking to me in that mesmerizing lilt of his.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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.
