entangle
Americanverb (used with object)
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entangles,
present (3rd person singular)
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entangled,
past participle, past
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entangling
present participle
verb
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to catch or involve in or as if in a tangle; ensnare or enmesh
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to make tangled or twisted; snarl
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to make complicated; confuse
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to involve in difficulties; entrap
Synonym Usage
See involve.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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entanglednessnoun
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entanglernoun
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interentangleverb (used with object)
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entangleableadjective
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unentangleableadjective
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unentangledadjective
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unentanglingadjective
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entangledlyadverb
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entanglinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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entanglesimple
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entanglessimple
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have entangledperfect
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has entangledperfect
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am entanglingprogressive
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are entanglingprogressive
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is entanglingprogressive
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have been entanglingperfect progressive
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has been entanglingperfect progressive
Past
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entangledsimple
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had entangledperfect
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was entanglingprogressive
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were entanglingprogressive
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had been entanglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entangle
Explanation
To entangle is to snarl, intertwine with, or get caught in. Too often, dolphins entangle themselves in large fishing nets meant to catch tuna or swordfish. If you mean to trip your brother, you can entangle your leg around his, and when long-haired people don't brush it for days, it will snarl and entangle itself. A figurative way to entangle is to get caught up in a complicated situation: "I didn't mean to entangle you in this mess with my roommates!" Entangle's roots are en-, "put in" or "cause to be" and tangle, or "snarl."
Vocabulary lists containing entangle
Messenger
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: en-, em-
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In a prototype device, the researchers used a shared source of correlated light particles to entangle two separated qubits, experimentally realizing an idea that had remained theoretical for more than two decades.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
It’s written in a broad way that could entangle Congress in other aspects of city governance, which probably isn’t a good use of lawmakers’ time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
By cooling and manipulating these atoms, scientists can entangle them and perform highly precise computations.
From Barron's ● May 20, 2026
Over an hour into a high-speed chase with the suspect, the sheriff’s department botched the deployment of a “grappler” net system intended to entangle the back wheels of the car to slow it down.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2026
The overgrown limberjack dived at the golem’s feet, using both arms and legs to entangle Hugo’s ankles.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
It nestles and entangles itself in for the long haul.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
Those numbers, however, don't amount to much in the grand scheme, given the rate at which Louisiana "incarcerates and prosecutes and entangles people in the criminal legal system left and right every day," Romero said.
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2024
A mass of knotted rope entangles like tentacles or whirs when swung by a spinning dancer.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2023
This chaotic set of instructions entangles all the qubits into one big, messy state.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 15, 2021
It created the "saviour of society," and the Commune; and it still entangles the footsteps of the Republic.
From The History of Freedom by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, Baron Acton
The team also intends to develop on-chip photonic quantum circuits capable of performing entangled measurements, potentially making the technology more compact and easier to integrate into future quantum systems.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2026
In the worst case she has seen, one of her clients was entangled in what appeared to be a romance scam.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
"This shows just how entangled our medicines are with the non-human world," Dr Freymann told BBC News.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Tourtsakis explained it to me like this: The process relied on the crystals in the room, which were quantum entangled with particles out in space.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
If I’m entangled with her, won’t that make it worse?
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Airstrikes have long been a go-to way to project military power for U.S. administrations that want to minimize the risk of American casualties and avoid entangling ground wars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 9, 2026
Washington's warning about the dangers of entangling alliances was followed for 150 years.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
More consolidation – and more influential corporate giants – risks more deeply entangling the interests of profit-driven companies in America’s food system.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2024
If the hair is longer than 2 inches, bury it in the soil to avoid entangling birds’ feet, she recommends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
Beneath the entangling personal motives, the debate is one of the oldest in the Western philosophical tradition, between nomos and physis.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
