persuade
Americanverb (used with object)
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persuades,
present (3rd person singular)
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persuaded,
past participle, past
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persuading
present participle
verb
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to induce, urge, or prevail upon successfully
he finally persuaded them to buy it
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to cause to believe; convince
even with the evidence, the police were not persuaded
Usage
See convince.
Synonym Usage
Persuade, induce imply influencing someone's thoughts or actions. They are used today mainly in the sense of winning over a person to a certain course of action: It was I who persuaded him to call a doctor. I induced him to do it. They differ in that persuade suggests appealing more to the reason and understanding: I persuaded him to go back to his wife (although it is often lightly used: Can't I persuade you to stay to supper? ); induce emphasizes only the idea of successful influence, whether achieved by argument or by promise of reward: What can I say that will induce you to stay at your job? Owing to this idea of compensation, induce may be used in reference to the influence of factors as well as of persons: The prospect of a raise in salary was what induced him to stay.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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persuadabilitynoun
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persuadablenessnoun
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persuadernoun
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prepersuadeverb (used with object)
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nonpersuadableadjective
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persuadableadjective
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unpersuadableadjective
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unpersuadedadjective
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well-persuadedadjective
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persuadablyadverb
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persuadinglyadverb
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unpersuadablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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persuadesimple
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persuadessimple
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have persuadedperfect
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has persuadedperfect
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am persuadingprogressive
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are persuadingprogressive
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is persuadingprogressive
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have been persuadingperfect progressive
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has been persuadingperfect progressive
Past
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persuadedsimple
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had persuadedperfect
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was persuadingprogressive
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were persuadingprogressive
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had been persuadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of persuade
From the Latin word persuādēre, dating back to 1505–15. See per-, dissuade, suasion
Explanation
If you get talked into something, you've been persuaded. If your friends try to persuade you to swan-dive into a dangerous ravine, it's time to find some new friends. To persuade is to get your way — win the argument, convince the group to see your favorite movie, get your parents to let you borrow the car. You persuade with language, with a carefully constructed argument, and with the strength of your conviction. The word is sometimes used tongue-in-cheek to describe the very opposite of a carefully worded argument. A movie gangster might "persuade" people with the gun he keeps tucked in his pocket.
Vocabulary lists containing persuade
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Argumentative Writing
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Argumentative Writing, List 1
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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:
The Times: You tried last year to persuade the L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
The goal shouldn’t be to persuade every hater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The security service had in fact disclosed the man's agent status in phone calls to me, as it tried to persuade me not to investigate him in 2020.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Simsek positioned Istanbul as a potential global financial center and tried to persuade international companies and wealthy individuals to invest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
In an intense but calm voice, the assassin confided to Augustus, as though trying to persuade him, the strangest thing: “I’m mad. I’m mad!”
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
When we meet she persuades me to join her in the water telling me she just stays out after heavy rain, which can trigger spills of raw sewage.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
One aspect of the dollar index being driven back up toward 100 is it persuades Hartnett that rate cuts are less likely.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 6, 2026
Kolar explained that, besides actual innocence, “disproportionality is the second most powerful” argument that persuades clemency boards and governors.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2026
Giving students real money to invest persuades them to do deeper research and be more risk-averse about possible picks, he adds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
Roza turns on some charm and persuades her to buy a pair of shoes, too.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
That improvement persuaded L.A.'s Natural History Museum to provide tiny portions of two teeth belonging to Thomas the T. rex, the most complete of the towering tyrannosaur skeletons displayed in the museum's dinosaur hall.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
Ultimately, the crisis on the street persuaded me to leave a very comfortable job.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
His administration persuaded Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, xAI, OpenAI and Amazon to sign a voluntary pledge not to leave consumers paying for new power infrastructure.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
She is bitter that the government failed to stop the incursion, that it did not evacuate residents when it could, and that it persuaded them the situation was not serious.
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
“If you could but be persuaded to think no more of it, aunt, and to regard me with kindness and forgiveness——”
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
His most impressive achievement, however, has been persuading people to pay more for his stock than his holdings of Bitcoin are worth.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
Proponents may face an uphill battle persuading Newsom to sign the bill, which creates a unique revenue stream to pay for the program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
They managed something most newcomers to Tinseltown never do: persuading some of its biggest companies to invest heavily in them.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The Chinese central government has made persuading households to spend more money an economic priority.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Unsettled, I quicken my pace, eventually persuading an elderly Plebeian man to direct me to Teluman's forge.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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.
