Meaning & use
entice
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Meaning
verbtransitive
To persuade someone to do something or go somewhere by offering something pleasant or making it seem attractive.
Grammar: Takes a person as its object; contrast entice someone into staying with the broader attract customers, which need not involve an offer.
Patterns
- entice someone into doing something
- entice someone away from something
- entice someone with something
- entice someone to do something
The café entices regulars with a free coffee after ten visits.
A rival firm tried to entice her away from the research team.
Bright packaging entices young children to choose sugary cereal.
Word forms
| third person singular | entices |
|---|---|
| past tense | enticed |
| past participle | enticed |
| -ing form | enticing |
Common combinations
- entice customers with discounts
- The cinema entices customers with discounts on weekday tickets.
- entice someone away from a job
- Recruiters attempted to entice the engineer away from a secure job.
- entice someone into signing up
- The gym entices people into signing up with a free first class.
- entice someone back
- Loyalty points helped entice members back after the price rise.
- entice someone to stay
- The landlord lowered the rent to entice the tenants to stay.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tempt
- Tempt focuses on stirring desire and can be neutral, selfish, or morally risky; entice more often suggests a planned attractive offer.
- lure
- Lure suggests pulling someone toward something, often with a hint of danger, trickery, or a trap; entice is usually more about a pleasant reward.
- attract
- Attract is broader and neutral, while entice normally means deliberately making a person do or choose something.
- seduce
- Seduce is stronger and can mean sexual persuasion or winning someone away from duty; entice is less intense and often commercial.
Opposites
Word family
- enticement noun
- something that entices, or the act of enticing
- enticing adjective
- very attractive; hard to refuse
- enticingly adverb
- in a way that makes something seem very attractive
Commonly confused: entice or tempt? entice or lure?
entice vs tempt
Both involve attraction, but tempt is about desire and can lack an offer, while entice usually names a person being drawn by a benefit.
entice vs lure
Lure often implies being drawn into danger, deceit, or capture; entice more commonly describes an attractive incentive.
Practice
Choose the best preposition: The shop uses music and samples to entice shoppers ___ the store.
Choose one answer.
Entice someone into a place means to draw them inside or toward entering; around, through, and near can describe position or route but do not capture the sense of being drawn in.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “entice”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.