persuade
Americanverb (used with object)
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:
"That's why even some of my friends say things which are not flattering, because somebody said to them that somebody might persuade me to change my view."
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
“What it cannot do is persuade this Court that any of its arguments for why the TLC Rules are unconstitutional, or otherwise unlawful, has the slightest merit,” she wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Yes, it would be better to persuade people to believe the evidence of their own eyes.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
I haven’t seen anything to persuade me that there’s not going to be any environmental damage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Mr. Rochester had himself written the direction, “Mrs. Rochester, —— Hotel, London,” on each: I could not persuade myself to affix them, or to have them affixed.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Longer-term coverage beyond that point will depend upon whether Medicare persuades insurers to participate—a prospect these companies have already balked at once.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
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
Kolar explained that, besides actual innocence, “disproportionality is the second most powerful” argument that persuades clemency boards and governors.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2026
This withdrawal of liquidity is already causing some tensions in the repo market that have not been witnessed since 2019 and this persuades Howell that stocks are not the right asset allocation at this juncture.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 21, 2025
Roza turns on some charm and persuades her to buy a pair of shoes, too.
From "What the Night Sings" by Vesper Stamper
At 12, she persuaded her parents to send her to ballet school in Tokyo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
“On this combined firm market share alone, the Court is persuaded that it can presume the proposed merger is likely to violate antitrust laws,” the judge wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
At some point, Anna persuaded Max to plead guilty even though he maintained his innocence.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
It’s almost like they weren’t even trying anymore to persuade people who weren’t already persuaded.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
Such factions here we had as commonly attend such voyages, that a pair of gallows was made, but Captain Smith, for whom they were intended, could not be persuaded to use them.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
The biggest challenge has been persuading fishermen to stop catching one of their most valuable species.
From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026
Oil prices were edging down early on Tuesday as President Donald Trump appeared to succeed in persuading Israel and Iran to pause fighting.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
In 2022 or 2023, Cathy conducted a polygraph test on Pauken, persuading him to do so after telling him his reports were being sent to Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the documents said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
Now head of product, she told the BBC working at Meta was her "dream job" - even if, two decades ago, her family took some persuading that she'd made the right decision.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
It wasn’t easy persuading Trashman to give up Kuda, but at last Tendai got the man to climb back through the hole in the wall.
From "The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm" by Nancy Farmer
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.
