interesting

adjective

in·ter·est·ing | \ ˈin-t(ə-)rə-stiŋ;

ˈin-tə-ˌre-, ˈin-ˌtre-; ˈin-tər-

Definition of interesting

: holding the attention : arousing interest

Other Words from interesting Synonyms & Antonyms The Pronunciation and History of Interesting Example Sentences Learn More about interesting

Keep scrolling for more

The Pronunciation and History of Interesting

There are a number of ways to say interesting. It can have three syllables or four; it can have an accent only on the first syllable, or it can also have a secondary accent on the "res"; the first "e" can get ignored, resulting in a second syllable of "tres" rhyming with dress; or the second "e" can be ignored, resulting in a syllable that sounds like terse. All of these various pronunciations are well-established and occur in the speech of educated, native speakers of English.

The word interesting originally meant "of concern"; it was a synonym of important. It comes from the verb interest, which in its original use meant "to induce or persuade to participate or engage." If you were interested in something, you were not willing to be a bystander; you felt the need to participate or engage.

Examples of interesting in a Sentence

This is one of the most interesting books I've read all year. It will be interesting to see how she decides to spend the money. This building has an interesting history. I don't find politics very interesting. I found it interesting to learn that she had once lived in California. Most of what he said wasn't interesting to me.

Recent Examples on the Web

There’s no real adventure or plot to speak of, just an enormous group of twentysomethings trying to make their way through while keeping their sanity—an endeavor that isn’t always successful, but is always interesting! — Vogue, "The Best New Year’s Eve–Theme Movies and TV Shows to Watch Tonight," 31 Dec. 2018 Between secret pregnancies, renting out amusement parks, and $1.4 million dollar gifts, Kylie and Travis' relationship has always been interesting. — Carolyn Twersky, Seventeen, "A Complete Timeline of Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott's Relationship," 8 Aug. 2018 Simon Kuper argues that the Yellow Vest protests aren’t even really that interesting, in the grand scheme of things: Populist movements may be the past, not the future. — Casey Newton, The Verge, "Why we can’t stop debating whether Facebook sells data," 14 Dec. 2018 But that was a really interesting piece of your Cislunar 1000 architecture. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Getting Vulcan up to speed: Part one of our interview with Tory Bruno," 11 Dec. 2018 Where this gets really interesting is in single-core performance. — Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld, "Here's how much slower (and faster?) Apple's new MacBook Air is than Dell's XPS 13," 2 Nov. 2018 This, needless to say, made the game a little more interesting. — Krystin Arneson, Glamour, "Kendall Jenner Straight-Up Booed Tristan Thompson at His Basketball Game," 24 Nov. 2018 This will also be an interesting test for the Irish, coming off a West Coast road trip the previous week against Navy. — Matthew Glenesk, Indianapolis Star, "Ranking Indiana's top 50 college football games in 2018," 11 July 2018 Bareilles's score offers all kinds of interesting rhythmic variety while maintaining the tuneful accessibility expected of a Broadway musical. — Tony Adler, Chicago Reader, "In the world of Waitress, almost all sins can be forgiven with a song," 11 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'interesting.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.