attraction

plural attractions

1. countableuncountableThe tendency to attract.

   The Moon is held in its orbit by the attraction of the Earth's gravity.

   Synonyms: pull · Antonyms: repellency

   1. countableuncountableThe state of being attractive.

      I can't resist his attraction.

      Synonyms: pull, charisma, charm, pull · Antonyms: repellency, creepiness, repulsiveness

   2. countableAn event, location, or business that has a tendency to draw interest from visitors, and in many cases, local residents.

      The new mall should be a major attraction.

      1 more example

      Star Tours is a very cool Disney World attraction.

      Synonyms: pull, feature · Antonyms: repellency, blight

   3. countableuncountableboard gamesThe sacrifice of pieces in order to expose the enemy king.

      Synonyms: pull · Antonyms: repellency

2. uncountableThe feeling of being attracted (to something), that is, being drawn toward it; a desire to be near or involved (in something).

   Our attraction to sugar makes it hard to stop eating it.

   2 more examples

   I kept returning there because I felt a strange attraction towards the place.

   When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose. And the queerer the cure for those ailings the bigger the attraction. A place like the Right Livers' Rest was bound to draw freaks, same as molasses draws flies.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter V, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Antonyms: repellency, repulsion

   1. countableuncountableSexual or romantic desire (especially for a usually specified individual, kind of person, etc).

      I've always had an attraction to blondes.

      3 more examples

      I don't think my husband has ever acted on any of his attractions.

      Murphy struggled with his attraction to men while remaining happily married all his life, daily negotiating the challenges of living in two locations simultaneously. These doublings of desire and emotional attachment left their trace in the multiple doublings within […] the billboard painting he made to signpost the home he created with his wife Sara […]

      2015 January 23, John Davis, Jennifer A. Greenhill, Jason D. LaFountain, A Companion to American Art, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 255

      "I'm asexual," Yazhiisai said, the words spilling out faster than she intended. "I don't experience attraction the way most people do. I'm telling you this because I don't want there to be any surprises."

      2024 October 20, Kate, A Love Unspoken, DeepMisti Publication, →ISBN, page 98

      Synonyms: desire · Antonyms: repellency, repulsion

3. countableuncountablehuman sciencesAn error in language production that incorrectly extends a feature from one word in a sentence to another, e.g. when a verb agrees with a noun other than its subject.