entail
Americanverb (used with object)
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entails,
present (3rd person singular)
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entailed,
past participle, past
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entailing
present participle
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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:
This initiative would entail mutual reinforcement of the idea of America.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
In a newsy weekend on the AI front, CEO Sam Altman said OpenAI won’t target an initial public offering this year and noted that making AI safer will entail “significant costs.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has promised "the biggest council house building programme since the post-war period" - although he has not provided details on exactly what this will entail.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Omishakin said it is too soon to say how much California will invest in the effort, or how many chargers it will ultimately entail, although the number is probably in the hundreds if not higher.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
Winston debated with himself whether to award Comrade Ogilvy the Order of Conspicuous Merit; and in the end he decided against it because of the unnecessary cross-referencing that it would entail.
From "1984" by George Orwell
“We don’t know what all of that entails right now and that’s why a study is required to ask all of these questions and identify issues and potential possibilities.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
That investigation also entails examining the work of several individual firms involved in construction, including MetroLoft, Gace and Domani, according to a person familiar with the matter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
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
On the screen of her iPad, she plays a relatively primitive video game that entails identifying targets that at first appear in the middle of the screen but get farther out on the periphery.
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s armed forces had received appropriate orders, although he did not specify what those instructions entailed.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Her journey back to the spotlight has entailed intense physical therapy, vocal rehabilitation and medication, she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Both jobs entailed tedious rewrite work that would have fit into Mr. Posner’s capacious definition of plagiarism.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
It entailed careful removal of the stone flooring to reveal the mechanicals beneath.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
Banning was a legal order by the government, and generally entailed forced resignation from in-dicated organizations, and restriction from attending gatherings of any kind.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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
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
Action taken: In May, Casino started court-backed talks with creditors; in June, it asked interested parties to table offers entailing at least 900 million euros of new money to fund a relaunch.
From Reuters ● Jul. 18, 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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
