entertainment

American  

[en-ter-tayn-muhnt] / ˌɛn tərˈteɪn mənt /

noun

• entertainments
  plural

1. the act of entertaining; agreeable occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement.

   Solving the daily crossword puzzle is an entertainment for many.

2. something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement, especially a performance of some kind.

   The highlight of the ball was an elaborate entertainment.

3. hospitable provision for the needs and wants of guests.

4. a divertingly adventurous, comic, or picaresque novel.

5. Obsolete. maintenance in service.

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entertainment British  

/ ˌɛntəˈteɪnmənt /

noun

1. the act or art of entertaining or state of being entertained

2. an act, production, etc, that entertains; diversion; amusement

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonentertainment
  noun
• preentertainment
  noun
• self-entertainment
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• entertainments
  plural

Etymology

Origin of entertainment

First recorded in 1525–35; entertain + -ment

Explanation

Entertainment is amusement, usually involving a performance. The clown at a birthday party, a Broadway show, a stadium rock concert, your friends fighting over the last potato chip––these are all forms of entertainment. Entertainment is from the Old French word entretenir meaning hold together or support. It was associated with hospitality––when you entertained a guest, you were keeping them happy. From there, it came to mean amuse or distract. The entertainment is the amusement or the distraction––we talk about theatrical entertainment as shows, visual entertainment as the stuff you like to look at, and audio entertainment as mostly music.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

entertainment entertainments

An airline customer-service employee who has run for state office as a Democrat, Santiago, 46, said she has cut back on going out to eat, extracurricular activities for her four children and entertainment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

And if, perhaps, in some language Skydance translates to “the end of the entertainment industry as we know it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Changing entertainment habits and tighter restrictions have made audiences harder to find, pushing many out of the profession.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

The entertainment company will exit the Nasdaq after it completes its merger with Paramount Skydance.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

But this was entertainment of a different stripe altogether, for on top of all the other delights unfolding on the stage, every now and then the pirates burst into song.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood

Today, dragons and dungeon crawls are common entertainments.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026

"Christmas football was originally rooted in a wider tradition of communal entertainments," Professor Martin Johnes of Swansea University told BBC Sport.

From BBC ● Dec. 24, 2025

The acting is fine, the characters generally endearing, and anyone familiar with local theater—or even just entertainments about local theater—will know the types.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025

The queen of all she surveys, she speaks in moony aphorisms, is posing for Vanity Fair and orchestrating a fundraising gala, among minor entertainments.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2025

Did it have anything to do with the fact that the children were banished from these genteel afternoon entertainments?

From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly