[syn: captivation, enchantment, enthrallment, fascination]
3. the capacity to attract intense interest;
- Example: "he held the children spellbound with magic tricks and other fascinations"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Fascination \Fas`ci*na"tion\, n. [L. fascinatio; cf. F.
fascination.]
1. The act of fascinating, bewitching, or enchanting;
enchantment; witchcraft; the exercise of a powerful or
irresistible influence on the affections or passions;
unseen, inexplicable influence.
[1913 Webster]
The Turks hang old rags . . . upon their fairest
horses, and other goodly creatures, to secure them
against fascination. --Waller.
[1913 Webster]
2. The state or condition of being fascinated.
[1913 Webster]
3. That which fascinates; a charm; a spell.
[1913 Webster]
There is a certain bewitchery or fascination in
words. --South.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
fascination
n 1: the state of being intensely interested (as by awe or
terror) [syn: fascination, captivation]
2: a feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual
[syn: captivation, enchantment, enthrallment,
fascination]
3: the capacity to attract intense interest; "he held the
children spellbound with magic tricks and other fascinations"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
132 Moby Thesaurus words for "fascination":
admiration, affinity, agacerie, allure, allurement, amaze,
amazement, animal magnetism, appeal, astonishment, astoundment,
attraction, attractiveness, awe, awesomeness, bedevilment,
beguilement, beguiling, beguilingness, bent, bewilderment,
bewitchery, bewitchment, bias, blandishment, breathless wonder,
bug, cajolery, captivation, charisma, charm, charmingness,
come-hither, complex, compulsion, craze, crazy fancy, draw,
dumbfoundment, enchantingness, enchantment, enthrallment,
enthusiasm, enthusiasticalness, enticement, enticingness,
entrancement, entrapment, extraordinariness, fancy, favor,
fixation, fixed idea, flirtation, forbidden fruit, furor, furore,
glamorousness, glamour, hang-up, hypercathexis, idee fixe,
illusion, inclination, inducement, infatuation, influence,
interest, inveiglement, invitation, irresistible impulse, leaning,
magic, magnetism, mania, manic-depressive psychosis, marvel,
marveling, marvelousness, maya, miraculousness, monomania,
morbid drive, mutual affinity, mutual attraction, mysteriousness,
mystery, numinousness, obsession, obsessive compulsion, partiality,
passion, penchant, phenomenalness, possession, predilection,
preference, preoccupation, prepossession, proclivity,
prodigiousness, propensity, pull, puzzlement, rage, remarkableness,
ruling passion, seducement, seduction, seductiveness,
sense of mystery, sense of wonder, sex appeal, snaring, sorcery,
stupefaction, stupendousness, surprise, sympathy, tantalization,
temptation, tic, turn, winning ways, winsomeness, witchcraft,
witchery, wonder, wonderfulness, wonderment, wondrousness,
wooing