entrance
1 Americannoun
-
entrances
plural
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an act of entering, as into a place or upon new duties.
- Antonyms:
- exit
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a point or place of entering; an opening or passage for entering, as a doorway.
- Antonyms:
- exit
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the right, privilege, or permission to enter; admission.
People improperly dressed will be refused entrance to the theater.
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Theater. the moment or place in the script at which an actor comes on the stage.
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Music.
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the point in a musical score at which a particular voice or instrument joins the ensemble.
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the way in which this is done.
a sloppy entrance.
-
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a manner, means, or style of entering a room, group, etc.; way of coming into view.
She mimicked Joan's entrance.
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Nautical. the immersed portion of a hull forward of the middle body (opposed to run).
noun
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the act or an instance of entering; entry
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a place for entering, such as a door or gate
-
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the power, liberty, or right of entering; admission
-
( as modifier )
an entrance fee
-
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the coming of an actor or other performer onto a stage
verb
-
to fill with wonder and delight; enchant
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to put into a trance; hypnotize
Synonym Usage
Entrance, admittance, admission refer to the possibility of entering a place or a group. Entrance may refer to either possibility: Entrance is by way of the side door; entrance into a card game. Admittance refers more to place and suggests entrance that may be permitted or denied: to gain admittance to a building; no admittance. Admission refers more to special groups and suggests entrance by payment, by formal or special permission, privilege, and the like: admission to a concert, a game, to candidacy, the bar, to society.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
entrancesimple
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entrancessimple
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have entrancedperfect
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has entrancedperfect
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am entrancingprogressive
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are entrancingprogressive
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is entrancingprogressive
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have been entrancingperfect progressive
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has been entrancingperfect progressive
Past
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entrancedsimple
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had entrancedperfect
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was entrancingprogressive
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were entrancingprogressive
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had been entrancingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entrance1
First recorded in 1525–50; from Middle French; see enter, -ance
Origin of entrance2
Explanation
As a noun, entrance means an act of entering or something that provides a way to enter something. You can make a grand entrance when you arrive at a party, as long as you can actually find the entrance. Entrance has two pronunciations. If you put the accent on the first syllable, the word is a noun meaning the act of entering or the way into something ("an entrance to the building"). If the accent is on the second syllable, then entrance is a verb meaning "to enchant, charm, or enamor" — "You will be entranced by the movie; the scenery looks so real you will swear it is growing in the theater."
Vocabulary lists containing entrance
Beowulf vocabulary
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myPerspectives 9.2
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Gene Wilder (1933-2016) Tribute List
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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:
Washington is widening the entrance in the same week the people inside learned the exit is 5% wide.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
Giant screens display recreations of bunks in Nazi concentration camps and the entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.
From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026
The entrance to the loft space is flanked by colorful, translucent plastic strips, allowing light and people to easily pass through.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
For the six-story glass rotunda that serves as the entrance, architects picked wood from the Republic of Congo and white granite from India’s Kashmir.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
I look with longing toward the Park entrance.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15 to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
There were no side entrances to allow a stranded driver to be pushed out of danger's way by marshalls either.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
The move from Block comes as many financial technology and payment companies are eyeing entrances into banking.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The hulking, three-story gray concrete structure is the width of a city block, with entrances on Tobias Avenue and Van Nuys Boulevard.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
A cleverly built home, with one wall, a sloping roof, and two entrances.
From "The Bridge Home" by Padma Venkatraman
Born in Minnesota, he was entranced as a child by the Midwestern, midcentury power of Dayton’s department store.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
But innovation will remain a hard sell so long as users remain entranced by the big blur, where art becomes media, media becomes content, and content becomes time tossed into the wind.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
How Scotland, and other parts of the world, became entranced by the fairytale only for the reality of sport's essential brutality to hit them square between the eyes at Celtic Park on denouement day.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
Two men are entranced by her, a suave doctor played by David Niven and Richard Conte’s impulsive race-car driver.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
He had read Schrödinger’s What Is Life? and become instantly entranced.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Frank Gehry, as he became, told me that MTT was already an entrancing showman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
The lyric, "I'll cry my eyes violet", refers to the star's famously entrancing eyes; and the line "what could you possibly get for the girl who has everything" namechecks one of her films.
From BBC ● Mar. 31, 2026
It is not necessary to know the backstory of the picture and its title to find it entrancing, but its history is a rich one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 20, 2026
The learning-center displays, for example, are often entrancing, particularly a 50-foot glass vitrine featuring a stunning array of more than 130 menorahs from around the globe, dating back to the first millennium.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025
Naomi had found the gentle flicker of the flares entrancing, and Muff had smiled and squeezed her arm.
From "Out of Darkness" by Ashley Hope Pérez
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.
