entailment

American  

[en-teyl-muhnt] / ɛnˈteɪl mənt /

noun

1. the act or fact of entailing, or involving by necessity or as a consequence.

   The logical entailment of this approach is that the right way to design a curriculum is to make it free of bias.

2. something involved as a necessary part or consequence of something.

   Long hours of work are an entailment of the job.

3. Linguistics. a relationship between two sentences such that if the first is true, the second must also be true, as in Her son drives her to work every day and Her son knows how to drive .

---

entailment British  

/ ɪnˈteɪlmənt /

noun

1. the act of entailing or the condition of being entailed

2. philosophy logic

   1. a relationship between propositions such that one must be true if the others are

   2. Usual symbol: ∋.  a proposition whose truth depends on such a relationship See fish-hook

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• preentailment
  noun

Etymology

Origin of entailment

entail + -ment

Explanation

An entailment is a deduction or implication, that is, something that follows logically from or is implied by something else. In logic, an entailment is the relationship between sentences whereby one sentence will be true if all the others are also true. Want a less-dry-sounding, real-life example? How about this: Being a good student, for instance, is an entailment of attending classes, learning the material, and keeping up with assignments. An old-fashioned definition of entailment is a set of limitations that restrict the ways property can be bequeathed to heirs.

Related Words

• consequence
• ramification
• repercussion
• residual
• result