Attraction

How to spell attraction

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce attraction

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does attraction mean?

1. nounA quality that draws interest, liking, or desire toward something or someone.
2. nounA place or feature that people travel to see or experience.
3. nounA force that draws two bodies or particles toward each other.

Attraction in a sentence

• The main attraction of the job was its flexible hours.

• The castle is the most popular attraction in the region.

• Gravitational attraction keeps the planets in orbit.

• There was an instant attraction between the two colleagues.

• The theme park added a new attraction for the summer season.

• The magnet's attraction pulled the paper clips across the desk.

Where does attraction come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb trahere, meaning 'to pull' or 'to draw', through its past participle form tractus. Adding the prefix ad- ('to' or 'toward'), which assimilated to at- before the t, produced attrahere, 'to draw toward', and the noun attractio described the act of drawing something near. English took the word from Latin by way of Old French during the late Middle Ages, and it first carried a literal sense of physical pulling, such as the way a magnet draws iron. Over time it broadened to the figurative pull of beauty, charm, or interest, and later still to the everyday sense of a place worth visiting. The same trahere root is hiding in many relatives, including 'tractor', 'extract', and 'contract', which is a useful clue to spelling the middle of the word: think tract, the part that pulls.

How the word is built

• at- (variant of ad-: to, toward)
• tract (from trahere: to pull, draw)
• -ion (noun: act or state)