seductive
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What does seductive mean? Seductive is used to describe someone who makes you want to engage in sexual activity with them, especially in a subtle or manipulative way. Seductive is also commonly used in a more general way to describe someone or something that tempts or influences someone to do something, especially something bad or something they wouldn’t normally do. Though this meaning of the word does not involve sex, it’s still often associated with the sense of the word that does. Both senses of the word often imply a subtle manipulation in which one’s motives are hidden. Seductive is the adjective form of the verb seduce. The act of seducing is called seduction. Example: There’s nothing I find more seductive in a person than the confidence to be who they are.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of seductive
First recorded in 1755–65; seduct(ion) + -ive
Explanation
Seductive is an adjective that describes the fascinating magnetic pull that someone or something has, an attractive quality that tempts you in some way. A seductive person catches your eye and won’t let it go. The word comes from the Latin seducere, meaning “draw aside.” When someone draws your attention aside from whatever you’re doing, that is a seductive person. Radio people often have seductive voices that lull you to sleep, and stores put their most seductive items in the front window in hopes that you’ll be tempted to come inside and buy them.
Vocabulary lists containing seductive
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 4
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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The Catcher in the Rye
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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.
Other topics we look at include the seductive power of gold, how authenticity has made “The Pitt” a hit and why America spends so much on healthcare.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026
The efficiencies it can generate are immensely seductive for corporate bosses, while the benefits it can bring to higher education have college presidents enthralled.
From Barron's • Mar. 19, 2026
She played the scheming, seductive Iris in the 1970 blaxploitation comedy classic “Cotton Comes to Harlem.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2026
It said they had resisted "psychological warfare, extensive propaganda and seductive offers".
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026
In the decades and centuries to come, there would often be fierce debate as to what constituted an appropriate combination of notes, or what cluster was beautiful, or ugly, or seductive, or discordant.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard 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.
