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HOW TO PRONOUNCE

intrigue

/ˌɪnˈtɹiɡ/

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American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
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What does intrigue mean?

noun

  1. A complicated or clandestine plot or scheme intended to affect some purpose by secret artifice; conspiracy; stratagem; the practice of engaging in hidden schemes.
  2. Clandestine intercourse between persons; illicit intimacy; a liaison or affair.
  3. The plot of a play, poem or romance; the series of complications in which a writer involves their imaginary characters.
More meanings (5)

noun

  1. A desire to understand something; interest or fascination.

verb

  1. To conceive or carry out a secret plan intended to harm; to form a plot or scheme.
  2. To arouse the interest of; to fascinate.
  3. To have clandestine or illicit intercourse.
  4. To fill with artifice and duplicity; to complicate.

Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0

IPA pronunciation

/ˌɪnˈtɹiɡ/

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗

Other dictionary pronunciations

/ˈɪntɹiɡ/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗

Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.

In the pages of books

See this word in context.

Every mere council of appointment, however constituted, will be a conclave, in which cabal and intrigue will have their full scope.
Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James MadisonThe Federalist PapersProject Gutenberg ebook #18
The Court, from that exclusive inner circle to its outermost rotten ring of intrigue, corruption, and dissimulation, was all gone together.
Charles DickensA Tale of Two CitiesProject Gutenberg ebook #98
More book examples (3)
Incapable ministers, the creatures of court intrigue, squandered in a few years the treasures which Sully's economy and Henry's frugality had amassed.
Friedrich SchillerThe History of the Thirty Years' WarTranslated by A. J. W. (Alexander James William) MorrisonProject Gutenberg ebook #566
He frequented the gaming-tables while engaged in preparing his work upon religion, and carried on a disreputable intrigue while writing his ‘Adolphe.’
Samuel SmilesSelf Help; with Illustrations of Conduct and PerseveranceProject Gutenberg ebook #935
At the time of his death she was carrying on an intrigue with a bookseller's assistant, Leon Vitalis, a young man of twenty-one.
H. B. (Henry Brodribb) IrvingA Book of Remarkable CriminalsProject Gutenberg ebook #446