infatuate
/ɪnˈfætjuˌ(w)eɪt/verb
infatuate is a verb meaning “To inspire with unreasoning love, attachment or enthusiasm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled I-N-F-A-T-U-A-T-E and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 50 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does infatuate mean?
verb
- 1
To inspire with unreasoning love, attachment or enthusiasm.
- 2
obsoleteTo make foolish.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteInfatuated, foolishly attracted to someone.
- 2
obsoleteFoolish, lacking good judgement.
noun
- 1
obsoleteInfatuated person.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce infatuate?
- /ɪnˈfætjuˌ(w)eɪt/
- /ɪnˈfætʃuˌ(w)eɪt/
As an adjective (“Infatuated, foolishly attracted to someone”): /ɪnˈfætju(w)ət/, /ɪnˈfætʃu(w)ət/.
Infatuate has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-infatuate.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-infatuate2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of infatuate
- infatuates present, singular, he/she/it
- infatuating participle, present
- infatuated participle, past
- more infatuate comparative
- most infatuate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is infatuate?
Infatuate appears about once in every 50 million words in written English, the 220,118th 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).
Infatuate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to inspire with unreasoning love or attachment:
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 infatuate come from?
First attested in 1533; from Middle English infatuate and/or borrowed from Latin infatuātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 2 for more.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).