entertainment
Americannoun
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entertainments
plural
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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:
Fast food has increasingly become fashion, entertainment, identity and political shorthand.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
In January, Dickson announced the appointment of former Paramount executive Pam Kaufman for the newly created role of chief entertainment officer to build the company’s entertainment, content and licensing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
The Thai authorities have deployed hundreds of police officers to keep an eye on the city's entertainment zones, and warned local businesses not to overcharge their American guests.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Acme conspicuously sets the plot’s inciting actions in 1992—the same year Warner Bros. officially merged its entertainment operations with those of Time Inc., making for one of the largest media houses in the world.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
“Is this really what passes for entertainment these days?”
From "A Monster of a Mystery (The Hardy Boys: Secret Files, #5)" by Franklin W. Dixon
Superhero-based entertainments, as we’ve come to know them, are comedies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
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
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
Later a young brother and sister gave recitations, which everyone present had heard many times at winter evening entertainments in the city.
From "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin
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.
