seductive

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin sēduct-, past-participle stem of sēdūcere, +‎ -ive.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA(key): /sɪˈdʌktɪv/ 
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adjective

seductive (comparative more seductive, superlative most seductive)

  1. Attractive, alluring, tempting.
  1. Evil is said to be seductive, which is one reason why people do what they know they shouldn't.
    • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
      The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. There is something humiliating about it. [] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

Collocations

Translations