lure
To tempt a person or animal into going somewhere.
- The smell of cheese lured the mouse straight into the trap.
- Bright petals and sweet nectar lure the bees into the flowers all summer long.
Similar: tempt, attract, draw
lure or tantalise?
Lure tempts someone to come closer. Tantalise teases them with something just out of reach.
Both words involve temptation, so children tend to treat them as the same trick. But the purpose is different.
To lure is to draw someone in. You might lure the cat back indoors with a treat held out in your hand, and once it comes, it usually gets the treat. The temptation has a job: to make someone move towards you.
To tantalise is to tease. The smell of Sunday dinner drifting upstairs tantalises you while you still have homework to finish: you can smell it, but you cannot have it yet. Nobody is trying to make you come anywhere. The wanting is the point.
Both words, side by side
tantalise
To tease someone by showing them something they want but cannot have.
- The smell of fresh doughnuts tantalised the children waiting in the queue.
- The toyshop window seemed to tantalise us, packed with things we longed for but could not buy.
Similar: tease, tempt, lure
Why it costs marks
In closest-meaning questions both words may sit beside 'tempt'. Knowing that lure is about getting someone to come, and tantalise is about keeping something out of reach, helps you choose between them when the options are deliberately close.
Definitions and example sentences on this page are the ones a child sees inside Wordrealm, taken from our list of over 1,100 words. It is free to browse, with nothing to sign up for.
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test