Synonyms

entangle

American

[en-tang-guhl] / ɛnˈtæŋ gəl /

verb (used with object)

to make tangled; ensnarl; intertwine.
to involve in or as in a tangle; ensnare; enmesh.

to be entangled by intrigue.
to involve in difficulties.
to confuse or perplex.

Synonyms:

bewilder

entangle British

/ ɪnˈtæŋɡəl /

verb

to catch or involve in or as if in a tangle; ensnare or enmesh
to make tangled or twisted; snarl
to make complicated; confuse
to involve in difficulties; entrap

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See involve.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of entangle

First recorded in 1530–40; en- ¹ + tangle ¹

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."

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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:

entangle entangles entangled entangling

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

To create high-performance quantum networks, researchers must entangle atoms and maintain that entanglement as signals travel through fiber cables.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2025

Nets along the east coast also routinely entangle humpback whales on their annual migration to and from the tropics.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2025

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

It has put banks on high alert, though their efforts to catch the fraud also routinely entangles innocent customers, causing institutions to suddenly freeze or shut down customer accounts in the process.

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2023

But the operatic plot is a skein that sometimes entangles its colorful character and other times leaves them panting with exhaustion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2023

It then entangles the hooked claws of its hind legs in the silken web, and lets its body hang vertically with the head end curved upward.

From Butterflies Worth Knowing by Clarence M. Weed

It said there was a need to define the "boundaries of business interactions through institutional measures, cutting off the grey areas where power becomes entangled with social obligations".

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Season 2 of the Peabody Award-winning series about two hockey rivals entangled in a heated romance is still months away from premiering.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

In this established optical process, a pump beam enters a nonlinear crystal, where individual photons can split into pairs that may become quantum entangled.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026

The reality is that crypto is more entangled with the traditional banking system than it cares to admit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

But at the time I blushed furiously to be seen by Hamlet while entangled in a fight with my brother.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

Washington's warning about the dangers of entangling alliances was followed for 150 years.

From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026

One term for the scams is pig butchering, because the scammers “fatten up” their targets by entangling them in romantic relationships online and dangling bogus financial schemes, then “butcher” them by disappearing with their money.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2025

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

In the new paper, the team reports near-flawless performance of its two-qubit entangling gates with extremely low error rates.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 12, 2023

Not far away, Leader tentatively lifted one foot and found it free of the entangling vine.

From "Messenger" by Lois Lowry

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023