Other forms: attracted, attracting, attracts
To attract is to pull attention or interest towards something, the way a magnet pulls iron. Attract attention, attract investment, attract a crowd.
In physics it is literal: opposite charges attract. Of people it means to find somebody appealing — she was attracted to him — and attractive covers both a person and an offer: an attractive proposition. Note attraction, which also means a place people visit: a tourist attraction; and that attract takes a direct object and cannot stand alone in the way appeal to can.
1verbattractTo pull attention or interest towards something.
“The bright flowers attract bees and butterflies to the garden.”
2verbexertTo exert a physical pull.
“Opposite charges attract and like charges do not.”
attract is a drawing towards.
Latin attrahere is ad-, to, plus trahere, to draw — the same verb behind tractor, contract and abstract. To attract is to draw towards, and the physics kept the Latin exactly.
Latin
attractus
English, today
attract
Built from
From Latin attractus, past participle of attrahere (“to draw to, attract”), from ad (“to”) + traho (“to draw”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA