magnetic
- 1Having the properties of a magnet, especially the power to attract or pull iron and similar metals.
The crane lifted the scrap metal with a powerful magnetic plate.
Iron filings line up neatly when placed near a magnetic surface.
Oppositenonmagnetic
- 2Relating to, produced by, or operating through magnetism.
Scientists mapped the magnetic field surrounding the planet.
The device stores data using tiny magnetic regions on a disk.
Note
The plain classifying sense, built from magnet plus -ic. A magnetic recorder or a magnetic experiment works through magnetism; it is not necessarily a magnet itself. In 1818 Thomas Brown traced the idea back to its oldest picture: iron moving toward an approaching loadstone. For the object that actually does the pulling, see the "acts like a magnet" meaning.
- 3Having an extraordinary power to attract people; charming, alluring, or persuasive.
The young senator's magnetic presence filled the auditorium.
Audiences found the lead actor utterly magnetic, unable to look away.
Similarcharismatic, captivating, alluring, compelling, mesmerizing
Note
The figurative use is older than it looks. John Donne was already writing "she that had all magnetic force alone" in 1611. It is said of people and their presence, as in a magnetic personality, and it praises a pull that is felt rather than argued. Unlike persuasive, it suggests charm working before reason does. The image is borrowed from the iron-drawing meaning.
- 4Determined by reference to the earth's magnetic field rather than its geographic poles.
The chart lists magnetic bearings that sailors correct for declination.
Surveyors recorded the magnetic heading before converting it to true north.
Note
You will mostly meet it in set phrases such as magnetic north and the magnetic meridian, which mark a direction read from the compass. Each has a geographic twin, and the angle between the two is the local magnetic declination. In navigation and surveying the adjective works as a warning label: a bearing that carries it still needs correcting before it matches the map.
Less common meaning
- 5Relating to animal magnetism: the supposed invisible force, believed to flow between living bodies, that practitioners claimed could influence or heal.
The mesmerist passed his hands over the patient to direct the magnetic fluid.
Society ladies swooned under what they believed was his magnetic influence.
Note
This is the vocabulary of mesmerism, now archaic. Franz Mesmer's followers spoke of a magnetic sleep, the trance a practitioner claimed to induce. Today the sense survives mainly in historical writing about that movement. Read it with care there: someone called magnetic in such a text may be under treatment rather than charming, so do not confuse it with the "charismatic" meaning.
Practice
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Origin
Formed from "magnet" combined with the suffix "-ic".