intriguing

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɹiːɡɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

intriguing (comparative more intriguing, superlative most intriguing)

1. Causing a desire to know more; mysterious.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:mysterious

   • 1945 September and October, C. Hamilton Ellis, “Royal Trains—V”, in Railway Magazine, page 249:

     As a result, while the train was being shunted at Bombay, the buffers became locked, producing a situation most intriguing for the onlookers, but exasperating for the exalted passengers and the unhappy railway authorities.

2. Involving oneself in secret plots or schemes.
   • 2011, Annelise Freisenbruch, Caesars' Wives: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Roman Empire:

     A book that does not sell us the powerful, intriguing women of Rome simply as poisoners, schemers, and femmes fatales […]

3. (archaic) Having clandestine or illicit intercourse.
   • 1839, Michael Ryan, Prostitution in London, page 83:

     […] few respectable women will now sit at a window, looking into the public street, or gaze at passengers in any large town or city; and no one does so at present, unless an innocent inexperienced, husband-hunting, flirtish, or intriguing person.

Synonyms

• fascinating, interesting, attractive

Translations

causing a desire to know more

• Bulgarian: интригуващ (bg) m (intriguvašt), увлекателен (bg) (uvlekatelen)
• Catalan: intrigant (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 引起好奇心的

• Dutch: intrigerend (nl)
• Finnish: mielenkiintoinen (fi), kiintoisa, kiehtova (fi)
• French: fascinant (fr)
• German: faszinierend (de), fesselnd (de), interessant (de)
• Hebrew: מְאַלֵּף (he) m (mealéf)
• Hungarian: érdekes (hu), érdekfeszítő (hu)
• Italian: intrigante (it), coinvolgente (it), stimolante (it), stuzzicante (it), affascinante (it), seducente (it)
• Norwegian: forlokkende
• Portuguese: intrigante (pt)
• Russian: интригующий (ru) (intrigujuščij), увлека́тельный (ru) (uvlekátelʹnyj), занимательный (ru) (zanimatelʹnyj), пленительный (ru) (plenitelʹnyj), захватывающий (ru) (zaxvatyvajuščij)
• Spanish: curioso (es), fascinante (es), intrigante

Verb

intriguing

1. present participle and gerund of intrigue

Noun

intriguing (plural intriguings)

1. (dated) An intrigue.
   • 1909, Thomas Longueville, The Curious Case of Lady Purbeck:

     In all these negotiations, and caballings, and intriguings, the person most concerned, Frances Coke, the beauty and the heiress, was only the ball in the game.