attractive

US /əˈtɹæktɪv/ See IPA manual

Freq #3061

Meanings

1

adj
Pleasant to look at; good-looking.

He is an attractive young man with a warm smile.
2

adj
Appealing or interesting in a way that makes you want it.

They offered me a very attractive salary.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · pleasant to look at;... beautiful good-looking

More alluring appealing appetizing attracting bewitching captivating charmingcoyingdesirable enchanting engaging enticing

Opposites

repelling repulsive ugly unalluring unattractiveunenticing

Word family

Derived forms attractively attractiveness attractivitychemoattractivecounterattractivenonattractivesuperattractive

Related forms beauty

Appears in

Phrases (2)

See all

Etymology

From Middle French attractif, from Late Latin attractīvus, equivalent to attract + -ive.

attractif Middle French attractīvus la-lat

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities

External links

# attractive

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A2
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /əˈtɹæktɪv/
**Frequency rank:** 3061

## Meanings
1. Pleasant to look at; good-looking.
2. Appealing or interesting in a way that makes you want it.

## Examples
- He is an attractive young man with a warm smile.
- They offered me a very attractive salary.

## Synonyms
- alluring
- appealing
- appetizing
- attracting
- bewitching
- captivating
- charming
- coying
- desirable
- enchanting
- engaging
- enticing

## Antonyms
- repelling
- repulsive
- ugly
- unalluring
- unattractive
- unenticing

## Derived Forms
- attractively
- attractiveness
- attractivity
- chemoattractive
- counterattractive
- nonattractive
- superattractive

## Related Forms
- beauty

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: attractif
- Root: attractīvus
- Affix: -ive - tending to

## Etymology
From Middle French attractif, from Late Latin attractīvus, equivalent to attract + -ive.

## AI Etymology
Attractive is from Middle French attractif, from Late Latin attractīvus, equivalent to attract plus -ive. The formation is semantically transparent: the parts remain visible, while the compound or affix fixes the grammatical role and narrows the modern meaning. In use as an adjective, attractive denotes pleasant to look at; good-looking and appealing or interesting in a way that makes you want it. The same word family continues in derived forms such as attractively, attractiveness, attractivity, and chemoattractive and related entries such as beauty.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities

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