riveting means commanding the attention of spectators. It carries an Arena rating of 1525, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, riveting ranks #290 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #883 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #929 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #1,269 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books.
riveting is pronounced /ˈrɪvɪtɪŋ/.
Why “riveting” is a great word
Commanding the attention of spectators or listeners by being completely engrossing or compelling. From the verb 'rivet,' meaning to fix or fasten firmly, from Old French 'river' (to clench, fix, fasten). The figurative sense of 'commanding attention' is attested from c. 1600 (as in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'), with the adjective form documented by 1658. Unlike "engrossing" (which suggests a deep, single-minded absorption) or "compelling" (which implies a forceful pressure to attend or agree), "riveting" describes an external power that seizes and pins one's focus. It is the sudden stillness of a theater, the collective breath held in a courtroom, the unblinking focus on a speaker whose next word feels like fate—the mechanical fact that attention, once fastened, cannot be looked away from.
adj
- Commanding the attention of spectators.e.g.“a riveting firework display”
noun
- The act of joining with rivets.
- The act of spreading out and clinching the end, as of a rivet, by beating or pressing.
- A set of rivets; rivets collectively.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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