🧲 To draw interest 🧲 To pull closer

to attract

91 3.2

Make things move toward a magnet or the Sun

verb
/əˈtrækt/

: atraer

When you place a magnet near metal, it will attract the metal towards it.
attract and repel
attracted to electrical fields
attracting and repelling

It looks like something's attracting the points to that one square.

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Examples

The blood in the water will attract the shark even more than the charge.

2-Headed Shark Attack (2012)
And the gravity of large rocky planets can attract huge amounts of gas.
When we feel good, we attract more good into our life.
Now you can see it's attracted to my hand again.
And then when you say it, you'll start to attract people who value that.
Any movement in the water attracts his attention.

Jigsaw (2002)
Of course, the problem with shying away from publicity these days is that it tends to attract even more.

S1m0ne (2002)
Some of the fortunate suburbs, like Blue Island, attracted industries and evolved a solid tax base.

Academic text (1994)
Well, they say that LA attracts big fish from Little ponds.
Vibrations attract them.

Dune (1984)

Antonyms

to repel

21 4.2

Make someone or something move back and stay away, often by using force

How Strong

to haul

106 2.5

drag

31 2.3

to pull

∞ 1.0

to attract

91 3.2

to draw

270 1.0

Surface Forms

attract infinitive

attracted past

attracted past participle

attracting present participle

attracts third person singular

Morphology

attract = tract (semi-transparent) = at + tract

The physical sense 'to draw toward' aligns closely with the morphemes 'at-' + 'tract', but the root 'tract' as a standalone English word is not commonly known, so inference is only partially reliable for learners.

Etymology

The word attract comes from the root tract that means 'to pull', just like a tractor pulls a load. So in physics to attract is to 'pull' objects toward each other, as a magnet or gravity does.