Other Word Forms
Explanation
To be hypnotized is to have your attention captured, either by a hypnotist or anything captivating. When hypnotized, it's like you're under a spell. Hypnotists (if you believe in that sort of thing) have the power to capture people's attention and control them. Someone under a hypnotist's power is hypnotized, and the word is used for similar situations. If you can't put down a book, you have become hypnotized by it. People seem hypnotized when they are focused on something and can't look away. To be hypnotized is to be fascinated, mesmerized, spellbound, and transfixed.
Vocabulary lists containing hypnotized
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.
Adrift, alone and haunted by guilt about that incident in her past, she becomes hypnotized by Peter’s superficially rational-sounding ideas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
“I Saw the TV Glow” is a claustrophobic mood piece that taps into the hollowness of growing up hypnotized by the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 2, 2024
They alternated between huge smiles and hypnotized stares toward videoboards as the “One Shining Moment” highlight montage that is a tournament-capping tradition began to play.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
How deeply someone can be hypnotized -- known as hypnotizability -- appears to be a stable trait that changes little throughout adulthood, much like personality and IQ.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 4, 2024
And the longer I stood there, the more I became like—sorta hypnotized by the slick whistlin’ of the cars as they rushed beneath us.
From "Tears of a Tiger" by Sharon M. Draper
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.
