captivating
cap·tiv·at·ing/ˈkæptɪveɪtɪŋ/adjective, verb
captivating is spelled C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-I-N-G: 11 letters and 4 syllables (cap·tiv·at·ing). It appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 23,253rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, captivating means “That captivates; fascinating” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in captivating?
| Letters | 11: C-A-P-T-I-V-A-T-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: cap·tiv·at·ing |
| In writing | 1.5 times per million words; the 23,253rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is captivating?
Captivating appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 23,253rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce captivating?
- UK /ˈkæptɪveɪtɪŋ/
- US /ˈkæptɪveɪtɪŋ/
- US [ˈkæptɪveɪɾɪŋ]
Captivating has 4 syllables, split cap·tiv·at·ing in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-captivating.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of captivating
- more captivating comparative
- most captivating superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does captivating mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
That captivates; fascinating.
- 2
Very beautiful or attractive.
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of captivate
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Captivating in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense beautiful:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | captivant, passionnant, fascinant, prenant |
| Portuguese | cativante, fascinante, envolvente, encantador |
| Spanish | arrebatador, cautivador, hechizante, embelesador, hechicero, captivante |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does captivating come from?
From captivate + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).