noun
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the act of seducing or the state of being seduced
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a means of seduction
Usage
What does seduction mean? Seduction is the act of making someone want to engage in sexual activity with you, especially in a subtle or manipulative way. Seduction is also commonly used in a more general way meaning the act of tempting or influencing someone to do something, especially something bad or something they wouldn’t normally do. Though this sense of the word does not involve sex, it’s still often thought of as a metaphor for the type of seduction that does. Both senses of the word often imply a subtle manipulation in which one’s motives are hidden. Seduction is the noun form of the verb seduce. People or things that seduce or that are capable of seduction are said to be seductive. Example: Don’t be fooled by his charm and his seduction—he only wants one thing.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of seduction
First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin sēductiōn-, stem of sēductiō “a leading aside,” from sēduct(us) “led aside” (past participle of sēdūcere “to lead aside”; see seduce) + -iō -ion
Explanation
Use the noun seduction when you're talking about a devious kind of persuasion, in which you cajole or charm someone into going along with your evil plan. You can also use seduction to mean a romantic attraction, especially if one person sets out to attract the other. The Latin root is seducere, "lead away or lead astray." Originally, seduction only referred to a man enticing a woman into romance, and not the other way around.
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:
It is the seduction of surfaces Cusk is exploring here, the ways we are taken in by so much that is chimerical: lavish interiors, actors, our own doubled selves.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
But we know too that to double down is to fall prey to the timeworn seduction of the sunk-cost fallacy: We’ve invested so much in this effort that to abandon it now would be worse.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Politics is about persuasion, seduction even, and prime ministers seem to have forgotten this is an almost constant process of wooing voters, MPs and civil servants to keep them driving your agenda forward.
From BBC ● May 16, 2026
After this first charged encounter, the initial gesture between them is not seduction.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026
But our talk had no room for literary seduction.
From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos
Saturday is the Sabbath, Medina said, a day of rest and reflection, with no surrender to the seductions of the wired world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2023
Time’s Up didn’t quite assert that women were immune to the seductions of power and money.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2021
And yet she herself was vulnerable to the seductions of one of the most famous, and infamous, musicians of that time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2021
Her cool, precise account reveals his grand seductions as the brutal, petty, narcissistic fumblings that they were.
From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2021
I have never permitted myself to add or subtract anything from my observations because of the seductions of preconceived theory.
From Makers of Modern Medicine by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
