Temptation
//ˌtɛmpˈteɪʃən// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of tempting. countable, uncountable
- 2 the act of influencing by exciting hope or desire wordnet
- 3 The condition of being tempted. countable, uncountable
- 4 something that seduces or has the quality to seduce wordnet
- 5 Something attractive, tempting or seductive; an inducement, seducement, or enticement. countable, uncountable
"At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]"
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- 6 the desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid wordnet
- 7 Pressure applied to one's thinking designed to create wrong emotions which will eventually lead to wrong actions. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"Finally she gave in to temptation and ate the whole cake."
Etymology
From Old French temptacion, from Latin temptatio. Morphologically tempt + -ation.
Related phrases
More for "temptation"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.