What does intrigue mean?
Word: Intrigue
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Intrigue means to make someone very curious to know more. As a noun, intrigue means secret plotting.
Synonyms: interest, puzzle, attract
How do you spell intrigue?
Syllables: in - trigue
Tricky part: It ends in gue, as in league and tongue: the u and e are written but not heard.
Watch out for: intrige, intrigu
Memory tip: Picture a question mark with a curly tail: intrigue also has a quiet tail, the ue that curls off after the g.
Intrigue in a sentence
Example 1: The locked trunk in Grandma's attic intrigued all the cousins.
Example 2: Stories about the Kohinoor diamond still intrigue people everywhere.
Example 3: The magician's last trick intrigued us so much that we argued about it all the way home.
Fun Fact
Intrigue came into English from French in the 1600s, when it was used for tricking people and secret plotting; the sense of making someone curious is much newer, from the late 1800s.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
intrigue
a) fascinate
b) amaze
c) bore
d) tempt
Show answer
c) bore. To bore someone is to make them lose interest, the opposite of intriguing them; fascinate, amaze and tempt all draw people in.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) entrigue
b) fatigue
c) vague
d) colleague
Show answer
a) entrigue. It starts with in, as inside does, not en.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
giuterin
a) integer
b) intrude
c) intrigue
d) interim
Show answer
c) intrigue. Intrude, integer and interim each need a letter that is not here; only intrigue fits the u and the g together.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
intriegue
a) i
b) g
c) e
d) u
Show answer
c) e. After tr there is a single i, and then the g.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What would most intrigue a young scientist?
a) a glass of plain water
b) a stack of folded clothes
c) a stone that glows in the dark
d) a bus that comes on time
Show answer
c) a stone that glows in the dark
2. If a film poster intrigues you, you most likely want to ____.
a) complain to the cinema
b) tear the poster off the wall
c) forget you ever saw it
d) find out what the film is about
Show answer
d) find out what the film is about
