Other forms: distractions
A distraction is something that pulls attention away. A minor distraction, driven to distraction, avoid distractions.
Getting back to a task after an interruption takes far longer than the interruption itself, which is the real cost of a distraction. Driven to distraction means maddened. The Latin means a pulling apart.
1noundistractionSomething that pulls attention away.
“I can't study at home; there are too many distractions, like the TV and my little brother.”
distraction is an interruption.
Latin distractio comes from distrahere, to pull apart — dis, apart, plus trahere, to draw. Tractor is a relative.
Latin
distractio
Middle French
distraction
English, today
distraction
Borrowed from Middle French distraction, from Latin distractio. Equivalent to distract + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA