Word.ws English Dictionary

intriguing

/ɪnˈtɹiːɡɪŋ/

intriguing adjective: causing a desire to know more; mysterious. Also the present participle and gerund of intrigue.

Adjective

intriguing (comparative more intriguing, superlative most intriguing)

  1. Causing a desire to know more; mysterious.
    • As a result, while the train was being shunted at Bombay, the buffers became locked, producing a situation most intriguing for the onlookers, but exasperating for the exalted passengers and the unhappy railway authorities.1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 249
  2. Involving oneself in secret plots or schemes.
    • A book that does not sell us the powerful, intriguing women of Rome simply as poisoners, schemers, and femmes fatales […]2011, Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire
  3. (archaic) Having clandestine or illicit intercourse.
    • […] few respectable women will now sit at a window, looking into the public street, or gaze at passengers in any large town or city; and no one does so at present, unless an innocent inexperienced, husband-hunting, flirtish, or intriguing person.1839, Michael Ryan, Prostitution in London, page 83

Noun

intriguing (plural intriguings)

  1. (dated) An intrigue.
    • In all these negotiations, and caballings, and intriguings, the person most concerned, Frances Coke, the beauty and the heiress, was only the ball in the game.1909, Thomas Longueville, The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck

Also used as

intriguing is also the present participle and gerund of intrigue.

intriguing meaning in Arabic

intriguing in Arabic

causing a desire to know more
مُثِير لِلْاِهْتِمَام muṯīr lilihtimām, مُثِير لِلْفُضُول muṯīr lilfuḍūl

Examples of intriguing in a sentence

  • Trump’s apparently keen interest in shaping American culture that may be most intriguing.
  • Daemyra is intriguing to me because I know it’s not real.
  • Of all the mysteries of ancient Rome, silphium is among the most intriguing.

All 40 example sentences with intriguing

Synonyms of intriguing

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of intriguing

Forms of intriguing

Adjective
comparativemore intriguing
superlativemost intriguing
Noun
pluralintriguings

Words formed from intriguing

Questions about intriguing

What does intriguing mean?
Intriguing means causing a desire to know more; mysterious.
What is intriguing in Arabic?
Intriguing in Arabic is مُثِير لِلْاِهْتِمَام (muṯīr lilihtimām), مُثِير لِلْفُضُول (muṯīr lilfuḍūl). See Intriguing meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is intriguing?
Intriguing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce intriguing?
Intriguing is pronounced /ɪnˈtɹiːɡɪŋ/.

Words near intriguing in the dictionary

  1. intriguery
  2. intrigues
  3. intriguess
  4. intriguesses
  5. intrigueth
  6. intriguing
  7. intriguingly
  8. intriguingness
  9. intriguings
  10. intrinsecal
  11. intrinsic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: intriguing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-intriguing.wav.

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