entertainment
Americannoun
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the act of entertaining; agreeable occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement.
Solving the daily crossword puzzle is an entertainment for many.
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something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement, especially a performance of some kind.
The highlight of the ball was an elaborate entertainment.
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hospitable provision for the needs and wants of guests.
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a divertingly adventurous, comic, or picaresque novel.
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Obsolete. maintenance in service.
noun
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the act or art of entertaining or state of being entertained
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an act, production, etc, that entertains; diversion; amusement
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of entertainment
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.
Vocabulary lists containing entertainment
Media Literacy - High School
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Media Literacy - Middle School
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Media Literacy - Introductory
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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:
Sony Group has spent billions of dollars on acquisitions in recent years to beef up its entertainment content while relinquishing control of businesses in other areas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
It is, nonetheless, unforgettable entertainment and season 2 will still render a viewer rapt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
A High Court judge in London recently ruled in favour of entertainment giant Hasbro, which owns the rights to Peppa Pig, after it sued Wolfoo's makers SConnect for copyright infringement.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
The fraud could involve purported film and entertainment projects, gaming entertainment investment platforms or other conduct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
From this altitude it appears the way Coachella or any major festival would look—which is disturbing to her, because entertainment is the last thing these people want right now.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Today, dragons and dungeon crawls are common entertainments.
From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026
Meghan Kobza’s “The Masquerade” unmasks the festivities of 18th-century London, where the commercial “middling sort” acquired the numbers and money to emulate the private entertainments of kings and aristocrats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 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
Upholding this legacy seems a more vital role for a critic than operating as a tour guide of commercial entertainments.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2024
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
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.
