captivates

verb

present tense third-person singular of captivate
as in fascinates
to attract or delight as if by magic the clown captivated the toddlers with his balloon tricks

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of captivates Carrero captivates in the dark comedy, as part of an ensemble cast that helped earn the series a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series in its second season. — Pete Hammond, Deadline, 24 Aug. 2026 Decades later, the story still captivates Time hasn’t diminished people’s fascination with the crime. — Tom Mooney, The Providence Journal, 14 Aug. 2026 Celebrated for its genteel Scandinavian minimalism, the brand embraces a deliberate and elevated design philosophy that captivates with its uniqueness. — Cortne Bonilla, Vogue, 5 Aug. 2026 The Hitchcockian plot captivates from the get-go as a sort-of writer talks to someone off camera about his obsession for shadowing strangers. — Randy Myers, Mercury News, 14 July 2026 Perhaps, then, what captivates us is a kind of redemption story—the seductive idea that technology can not only repair nature but absolve us for having degraded it. — Taylor Dotson, Scientific American, 10 July 2026 Holland, who had important roles in Selma and Moonlight, always captivates. — Stephen Farber, HollywoodReporter, 15 June 2026 The tournament touches and captivates nearly every corner of the globe. — Henry Bushnell, New York Times, 8 June 2026 Sure, there are several social butterflies across the zodiac—Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius, to name a few—but Geminis are famous for their magnetic eccentricity which captivates just about anyone in their orbit. — Kara Jillian Brown, InStyle, 21 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for captivates
  1. fascinates
  2. entices
  3. enchants
  4. delights
  5. seduces
Verb
  • What fascinates me most isn't simply whether Wagner can squeeze 621 miles out of this massive battery.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 20 Sep. 2026
  • Gauna has filmed hundreds, maybe thousands of great white sharks across Southern California, and still their every movement, every action, fascinates him.
    — Laylan Connelly, Oc Register, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of fascinates
Verb
  • Turkey’s growing hair transplant and restoration industry in particular entices people with easy-to-digest all-inclusive packages advertised on their websites, online placements, and social media.
    — Elizabeth Gulino, Allure, 23 Sep. 2026
  • The high-concept thriller stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as a demonic character called The Stranger, who entices a young mother played by Jasmine Trinca into forging a Faustian pact.
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 3 Sep. 2026
Definition of entices
Verb
  • Allegheny National Forest, just around 90 minutes from Erie, Pennsylvania, enchants with rolling peaks that reflect off calm, paddle-friendly waterways.
    — Stephanie Vermillion, Travel + Leisure, 7 June 2026
  • Ella has shades of Holly Hunter's intense, workaholic producer Jane from Brooks' 1987 masterpiece Broadcast News, the smartest person in any room who both exhausts and enchants everyone around her.
    — Esther Zuckerman, Time, 12 Dec. 2025
Definition of enchants
Verb
  • Located in a petite strip mall off I-75, the doughnut shop lacks frills but delights with an array of yeast and cake-style doughnuts.
    — Lia Picard, AJC.com, 27 Sep. 2026
  • The Dogist delights 🐶 After getting laid off, Elias Weiss Friedman picked up his camera and started shooting photos of dogs.
    — Phaedra Trethan, USA Today, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of delights
Verb
  • Diaz centers music as the emotional vehicle that provides a philosophical structure for the character tropes and in turn psychologically seduces the audience to internalize certain ideas of social dynamics.
    — Damaly Gonzalez, ARTnews.com, 30 Sep. 2026
  • On his final voyage, Gulliver meets the Houyhnhnms, a race of supremely intelligent horses that follow the wisdom of reason and tradition rather than the speculation of science and technology that seduces the Laputans.
    — Dónal Gill, The Dial, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of seduces

Browse Nearby Words

captivated
captivates
captivating
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Captivates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/captivates. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All