What does captivate mean?
Word: Captivate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Captivate means to win someone's full interest and pleasure, so that they can hardly look away.
Synonyms: fascinate
Antonyms: repel
How do you spell captivate?
Syllables: cap - ti - vate
Tricky part: The middle syllable is ti. Because it is said quickly, students often write captavate or captevate.
Watch out for: captavate, captevate
Memory tip: Picture a tightrope walker at a fair holding every eye: the ti of tightrope is the middle of captivate.
Captivate in a sentence
Example 1: Photographs of snow leopards in Spiti captivated visitors at the exhibition.
Example 2: Her first violin solo captivated the judges.
Example 3: The view of Kanchenjunga at sunrise captivated us all.
Fun Fact
Captivate comes from Latin capere, 'to take', which also gave English capture and capacity: a captivated listener has, in a way, been taken hold of.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Which of these words drops its final e and takes ate to make a real verb?
ate
a) pensive
b) captive
c) festive
d) massive
Show answer
b) captive. Captive loses its e and takes ate; festivate, massivate and pensivate are not words.
Word Cookie
One letter in this word is not needed. Find it:
capptivate
a) c
b) t
c) v
d) p
Show answer
d) p. A single p follows the ca, as in captain.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word captivated as used in the sentence:
The young dancer's performance captivated everyone in the auditorium.
a) enchanted
b) charmed
c) bored
d) delighted
Show answer
c) bored. A show that bores people fails to hold them at all, the opposite of what captivate means; charmed, enchanted and delighted are close in meaning.
Mingle-Mangle
The sentence hides a jumbled word. Choose the word:
Folk tales full of talking animals still pcaetatvi young readers today.
a) capitulate
b) captivate
c) activate
d) cultivate
Show answer
b) captivate. Cultivate and capitulate both need a u and an l, and activate has no p, so the letters can only make captivate.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A film that captivates its audience is one that ____.
a) holds their attention from start to end
b) makes them want to leave before the end
c) is too loud for anyone to enjoy
d) is forgotten as soon as it is over
Show answer
a) holds their attention from start to end
2. Six-year-olds at a school fair would be captivated by ____.
a) a puppet show with funny voices
b) a list of train fares read aloud
c) a long talk on bus timetables
d) a speech about filling in forms
Show answer
a) a puppet show with funny voices
