entail
Americanverb (used with object)
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to cause or involve by necessity or as a consequence.
a loss entailing no regret.
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to impose as a burden.
Success entails hard work.
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Law. to limit the passage of (real estate) to a specified line of heirs, so that it cannot be transferred or bequeathed to anyone else.
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Law. to cause (anything) to descend to a fixed series of possessors.
noun
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the act of entailing.
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Law. the state of being entailed.
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any predetermined order of succession, as to an office.
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Law. something that is entailed, as an estate.
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Law. the rule of descent settled for an estate.
verb
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to bring about or impose by necessity; have as a necessary consequence
this task entails careful thought
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property law to restrict (the descent of an estate) to a designated line of heirs
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logic to have as a necessary consequence
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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entailsimple
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entailssimple
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have entailedperfect
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has entailedperfect
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am entailingprogressive
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are entailingprogressive
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is entailingprogressive
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have been entailingperfect progressive
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has been entailingperfect progressive
Past
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entailedsimple
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had entailedperfect
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was entailingprogressive
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were entailingprogressive
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had been entailingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entail
First recorded in 1350–1400; from Middle English entailen (verb), entail (noun), equivalent to en- 1 + tail 2 ( def. )
Explanation
To entail is to involve. A job at a movie theater might entail sweeping popcorn off the floor, probably because watching a movie entails eating popcorn in the dark. It’s a small price to pay! The word entail, which comes from Latin, is connected to the idea of preconditions. If you want something, you better figure out what it entails. If it’s only 8 o’clock and you want to see a movie at 9, that will entail waiting for an hour. If you want to stay out of trouble, that will entail calling your parents and letting them know you're going to be late. That’s what being responsible entails!
Vocabulary lists containing entail
List 7
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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:
Gensler’s strategy can entail making these often blank-faced barns for computer servers look more organic to the local surroundings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Reforming the historic structure of multimember agencies will entail trade-offs but is worth considering as this new landscape takes shape.
From Slate ● Jul. 6, 2026
Owning shorter-term bonds, which entail less risk, is probably going to be the more sensible investment.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
For Monterroso Mejia, becoming Valentina didn’t necessarily entail playing a character, but leaning on her lived experience as the child of immigrants existing in a bilingual place like Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
In Virginia, however, laws abolishing primogeniture and entail had been passed during the Revolution.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
They had grandparents for the kids to stay with, so they did not go—as tens of thousands do each year—into state custody, with the many attendant traumas that entails.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
"Parents and children now face an increased wait for these results, with all the anxiety this entails, through no fault of their own," he added.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
The economists said that in their base case, a strong event entails losses of between $3 trillion and $5 trillion across five years, or about 2.7% to 3.2% of global gross domestic product.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
This designation has more serious consequences, as it entails equating the PCC and CV with groups such as Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
I have chosen this course which is more difficult and which entails more risk and hardship than sitting in gaol.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
In the model, the “availability” phase entailed contact and small-scale movements across the frontier, with trading relationships and marriage alliances, for example, forming gradually.
From Science Daily ● May 30, 2026
Both these jobs entailed prolonged, ego-deflating battles; both ended in professional debacle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026
From the outset, the company was a little vague about what the service actually entailed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2026
"But I would tell them this, they haven't a clue what this investigation has entailed," he told the Tucson Sentinel newspaper this week.
From BBC ● Mar. 8, 2026
But this, too, entailed military weakness, and since the privations it inflicted were obviously unnecessary, it made opposition inevitable.
From "1984" by George Orwell
In recent years, a couple of local districts have rolled out pilot programs entailing the release of sterile male mosquitoes to drive the population down, a relatively new approach to tackling these mosquitoes.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2025
Xiong Lee’s path to shamanism has been arduous, entailing rigorous training with a shaman mentor to learn how to communicate with the spirit world.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 25, 2023
So, the fuel needs a larger percentage of this isotope, entailing higher uranium-235 enrichment than the 4 percent enriched LEU typically used in nuclear power plants.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 20, 2023
Often presenting well after the initial infection, post-acute infection syndrome manifests as a complex and variable disorder, typically entailing severe fatigue, gastrointestinal issues, confused sensory perception, and neurocognitive abnormalities.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2023
There are videos about the importance and difference of treble and bass clefs; there is a list of music terms and what they mean, and the site even contains videos entailing the transposition of music.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
