Distract

How to spell distract

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce distract

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does distract mean?

1. verbTo draw someone's attention away from what they are doing or should be focusing on.

Distract in a sentence

• Loud music can distract you while you study for an exam.

• She moved the toys out of sight so they would not distract the toddler.

Where does distract come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin distrahere, which literally meant 'to pull apart' or 'to draw in different directions', built from the prefix dis-, meaning 'away' or 'apart', and trahere, the verb 'to drag or draw'. In Latin it could describe physically tearing something into pieces as well as the figurative sense of dragging a person's attention or feelings in several directions at once. English took the word in the early 1400s from the past participle distractus, which is why the modern spelling keeps that hard -tract ending rather than a softer form. The same trahere root sits inside a whole family of familiar English words, including 'attract', 'extract', 'tractor', and 'contract', all of which involve some kind of pulling. Remembering that 'tract' always means a pull or draw makes the spelling steadier, since the trap is usually the unstressed first syllable that sounds like 'di-' but is written 'dis-'.

How the word is built

• dis- (away, apart)
• tract (to draw or pull, from Latin trahere)