Other forms: magnets
A magnet is the piece of metal that pulls iron things towards itself. Two ends, and one of them will not go near the same end of another.
Every magnet has a north and a south pole, and opposite poles attract while like poles push apart. The earth is one, which is why a compass works. The figurative use is very common, since a place that draws people is a magnet for tourists, and it takes for. Fridge magnets are the most owned kind in the world. The adjective is magnetic, and a magnetic personality attracts people the same way.
Middle English
magnete
English, today
magnet
From Middle English magnete. From Middle English magnete, via Old French magnete, Latin magnēs (“lodestone”), from Ancient Greek μαγνῆτις [λίθος] (“Magnesian [stone]”), either after the Lydian city Magnesia ad Sipylum (modern-day Manisa, Turkey), or after the Greek region of Μαγνησία (whence came the colonists who founded the city in Lydia). Related to manganese, magnesia and magnesium.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA