fascinate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
fascinates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fascinated,
past participle, past
-
fascinating
present participle
-
to attract and hold attentively by a unique power, personal charm, unusual nature, or some other special quality; enthrall.
His natural vivacity fascinates and dominates his audience, leading them wherever he will.
-
to arouse the interest or curiosity of.
As I learned about ancient Egyptian religion, I found elements that fascinated me.
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to transfix or deprive of the power of resistance, as through terror.
The sight of the snake fascinated the rabbit.
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Obsolete. to bewitch.
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Obsolete. to cast under a spell by a look.
verb (used without object)
-
fascinates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
fascinated,
past participle, past
-
fascinating
present participle
verb
-
to attract and delight by arousing interest or curiosity
his stories fascinated me for hours
-
to render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe
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archaic to put under a spell
Usage
A person can be fascinated by or with another person or thing. It is correct to speak of someone's fascination with a person or thing; one can also say a person or thing has a fascination for someone
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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fascinatesimple
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fascinatessimple
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have fascinatedperfect
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has fascinatedperfect
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am fascinatingprogressive
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are fascinatingprogressive
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is fascinatingprogressive
-
have been fascinatingperfect progressive
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has been fascinatingperfect progressive
Past
-
fascinatedsimple
-
had fascinatedperfect
-
was fascinatingprogressive
-
were fascinatingprogressive
-
had been fascinatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of fascinate
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Latin fascinātus, past participle of fascināre “to bewitch, cast a spell on,” verbal derivative of fascinum “evil spell, bewitchment”
Explanation
Anything that sparks your interest or makes you wonder has the ability to fascinate. If you catch someone's interest, and then hold it, you fascinate them. Be careful. The word fascinate actually comes from Latin and French words meaning "witchcraft," and although these days fascinate is used under much tamer circumstances, there is some sense in the word that the person's appeal is not quite normal: there might be a spell-like quality to his or her charms. Thus, the word is often used to describe a new love. On the other hand, you might find the study of exotic beetles fascinating. To each his own.
Vocabulary lists containing fascinate
Woman Hollering Creek
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I Survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005
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Lessons 2–3
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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:
He’s a student of life as much as he is filmmaking, a humanist who forges connections with spectacular sights of the things that frighten and fascinate us the most.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
In Italy, where she has no public role, Catherine seemed to fascinate people.
From BBC ● May 14, 2026
The family continues to fascinate the American psyche several decades and generations later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
But the subject also appears to fascinate him.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
“Well I don’t want to be interesting? I said. “I don’t exist to fascinate strangers.
From "A Very Large Expanse of Sea" by Tahereh Mafi
The American experiment in liberty fascinates Jimmy, and his papers and magazines reflected that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
That soccer thrives on the genius and physical prowess of human beings, which also means that the possibility of failure makes it profoundly dramatic, fascinates Luna.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
As a writer who is both gay and old enough to have watched the internet explode into the nefarious monster it’s become, the way language transforms online both irks and fascinates me.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
"Their war cry is 'let's live life, let's live it healthily, let's live well,' and obviously this fascinates me."
From Barron's ● May 5, 2026
“Your Handdara fascinates me, Harth, but now and then I wonder if it isn’t simply paradox developed into a way of life....”
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
The house, which has fascinated generations of commuters, was built in 1963 by Sam Harkleroad, a tinkerer who dotted Marin County with unconventional dwellings before he died in 1993.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Eclipses have fascinated Andrew ever since he saw his first in St Agnes all those years ago.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
He admitted to being fascinated by fire, and that "things that go through fire experience a kind of rebirth," a detective said in the document.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Greta Lee and Edmund Donovan star alongside the actor in this adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s novella about a group of intellectuals fascinated with a once-celebrated writer who now works at a post office.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
For years, they had both been fascinated by the Mayan glyphs, the script of the ancient Maya of Mesoamerica.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
“It would be fascinating to explore and to consider, hang-gliding over the surface. It would be just wild.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
This will be a fascinating game because Liverpool are still adapting to life under Andoni Iraola and have struggled defensively in pre-season.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
It will be fascinating to see how they get on.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
It was fascinating to see what the past thought the future might bring,” reader Margaret Hardy writes of the 20th century classic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
After a year at Oxford, I went back to London and an absolutely fascinating job.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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.
