gripping

[ grip-ing ]

adjective

1. holding the attention or interest intensely; fascinating; enthralling:

   a gripping play; a gripping book.

Other Words From

• gripping·ly adverb
• gripping·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of gripping¹

First recorded in 1620–30; grip + -ing ²

Example Sentences

Their arduous climb back makes for some of the book’s most gripping reading.

From Los Angeles Times

Rather than build a gripping, inclusive liberal patriotism that the country is starving for, Harris fell back on targeting specific groups and complaining that Trump was being divisive.

From Salon

You may eventually see that you’ve been bamboozled, or you may continue to descend into the mass psychosis gripping the American mind.

From Salon

It was billed as a mass assault on a public health crisis that was gripping an impoverished post-war Glasgow.

From BBC

Little, who is one of the most successful out-there American opera composers, has long mixed rock and minimalism and a kind of narrative neo-Romanticism into dramatically gripping but straightforward opera.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• captivating
• engrossing
• enthralling
• exciting
• fascinating
• interesting
• intriguing
• riveting
• spellbinding