# interesting

Pronunciation: US say "IN-tuh-res-ting" /ˈɪntəɹəstɪŋ/; UK say "IN-truh-sting" /ˈɪntɹəstɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Holding someone's attention or making them want to keep watching, reading, or learning about something.
   - Simple: Making someone want to keep paying attention or to learn more.
   - _The lecture was interesting enough to keep the whole class awake._
   - _He raised an interesting point that shifted the direction of the debate._

## Verb

2. Present participle and gerund of interest. — present participle and gerund of interest
   - Simple: The -ing form of interest. Use it to name the action, or after a noun to describe it.
   - _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._

## Adjective

3. Of real concern; affecting one's interests or welfare; important. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Important, or able to affect you in a real way.

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Pregnant: a genteel, dated euphemism, found in the fixed phrases "an interesting condition" and "an interesting situation".

## Origin

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

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/interesting (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).