DictionaryAI

interesting

IN-tuh-res-ting/ˈɪntəɹəstɪŋ/UKIN-truh-sting/ˈɪntɹəstɪŋ/

4 meanings of interesting

Practice

  1. 1
    worth attentionadjective
    Holding someone's attention or making them want to keep watching, reading, or learning about something.

    Like a magnet that keeps pulling your attention back.

    The lecture was interesting enough to keep the whole class awake.

    He raised an interesting point that shifted the direction of the debate.

    UsageThe thing is interesting; the person who wants to know more is interested in it (not incorrect: I am interesting in it).

    Similarfascinating, intriguing, engaging, absorbing, compelling

    Oppositeboring, dull, tedious, uninteresting

  2. 2
    make someone keenverb
    Present participle and gerund of interest.

    Few teachers had ever succeeded in interesting her in mathematics, but the new one managed it within a single semester.

    Interesting shareholders in the merger proved harder than the board expected.

    UsageTakes an object, often with in: interesting her in music. If very fits in front, it is the adjective instead.

  3. 3
    adjectiveobsolete
    Of real concern; affecting one's interests or welfare; important.
    Note

    An older, weightier meaning: here interesting describes a matter that touches a person's welfare or affairs, not merely their curiosity. When James Boswell writes in 1791 of a matter "deeply interesting and of great delicacy," he means it mattered seriously to the people involved. Read older prose with this sense in mind. A modern reader who hears only "engaging" will underestimate how grave the matter was.

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Interesting has an older meaning of concern or importance, affecting a person's affairs. en.wiktionary.org
    • James Boswell wrote the quoted words in The Life of Samuel Johnson. gutenberg.org
    • 1791 is the work's first publication year. en.wikipedia.org
    • The serious interpretation is supported by the context: disclosure of Johnson's confidential account of his mental distress. gutenberg.org

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    adjectivedated
    Pregnant: a genteel, dated euphemism, found in the fixed phrases "an interesting condition" and "an interesting situation".
    I’m afraid I seem to make heavy weather of my interesting condition.
    1928, William Babington Maxwell, We Forget Because We Must

interesting is a form of interest

interest, verb: To capture someone's attention or curiosity; to make a person care about a subject or thing. Full entry

Forms
interestinterests he/she/itinteresting -ing forminterested past tense, past participle
Spelling
interest → interesting: add -ing

Use it in a sentence

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Origin

Formed from "interest" combined with the suffix "-ing."

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact