Meaning & use
distracting
Last updated
Meanings
adjectivecomparable
Making it hard to concentrate by pulling attention away from what you are doing.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after be: a distracting noise; the noise is distracting.
Patterns
- distracting to someone
- a distracting noise
The loud music from next door was very distracting.
A phone buzzing on the table is distracting to the whole class.
She found the bright posters too distracting to study.
verbtransitive
Present participle of 'distract': drawing someone's attention away from something else.
Grammar: Needs an object: distracting the driver.
Patterns
- distracting someone from something
Stop distracting your brother while he does his homework.
The magician was distracting the audience with a loud flourish.
Notifications keep distracting me from my work.
Word forms
| comparative | more distracting |
|---|---|
| superlative | most distracting |
Common combinations
- highly distracting
- The construction noise was highly distracting.
- distracting noise
- A distracting noise from the street broke her focus.
- distracting thoughts
- Distracting thoughts kept him awake.
- find something distracting
- I find background music distracting when I read.
- distracting from the task
- Checking email is distracting from the task at hand.
Synonyms and how they differ
- disruptive
- This is stronger and suggests actually interrupting an activity, not just drawing attention.
- diverting
- This often has a pleasant sense of amusing someone, while distracting is usually a nuisance.
- bothersome
- This stresses annoyance and does not necessarily involve losing concentration.
- off-putting
- This means unpleasant enough to discourage you, not simply attention-grabbing.
Opposites
Word family
- distract verb
- to draw attention away
- distraction noun
- something that takes attention away
- distracted adjective
- unable to concentrate
- distractingly adverb
- in a way that pulls attention
Commonly confused: distracting or distracted? distracting or destructing?
distracting vs distracted
Distracted describes the person whose attention has drifted; distracting describes the thing that causes it.
distracting vs destructing
Destructing means destroying or self-destroying, and has nothing to do with attention.
Practice
The flashing advertisement on the page was so ______ that I could not finish reading the article.
Choose one answer.
Distracting describes the thing that pulls attention away. Distracted would describe the reader, and distraught means extremely upset.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “distracting”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.