entangle
Americanverb (used with object)
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entangles,
present (3rd person singular)
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entangled,
past participle, past
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entangling
present participle
verb
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to catch or involve in or as if in a tangle; ensnare or enmesh
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to make tangled or twisted; snarl
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to make complicated; confuse
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to involve in difficulties; entrap
Synonym Usage
See involve.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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entanglednessnoun
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entanglernoun
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interentangleverb (used with object)
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entangleableadjective
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unentangleableadjective
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unentangledadjective
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unentanglingadjective
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entangledlyadverb
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entanglinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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entanglesimple
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entanglessimple
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have entangledperfect
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has entangledperfect
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am entanglingprogressive
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are entanglingprogressive
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is entanglingprogressive
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have been entanglingperfect progressive
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has been entanglingperfect progressive
Past
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entangledsimple
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had entangledperfect
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was entanglingprogressive
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were entanglingprogressive
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had been entanglingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of entangle
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."
Vocabulary lists containing entangle
Messenger
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: en-, em-
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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
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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:
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
“The net is designed to entangle itself on any of the rotating objects in the rear of the car,” Santistevan said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
It's designed to trap and entangle Russian drones and stop them hitting the vehicles beneath.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2026
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
Through these holes the animal puts out a number of feelers like threads of jelly, and in these entangles particles of food, and draws them into itself.
From The Geological Story of the Isle of Wight by J. Cecil Hughes
"By stabilizing the entangled states remotely, our approach is fully autonomous and requires no active control or measurement."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
Becoming entangled with one’s audience meant that followers’ reactions – whether positive or negative – often started to feel like a burden.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
Despite the obvious ways this arrangement entangled the central bank with the Treasury, the Fed retained enough independence to raise policy rates after inflation took hold in 2021 and 2022.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
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
He remembered their arms entangled, their stupid little inside jokes, the way he felt when he would come over to her house after school and see her reading through the window.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
The other $0.9 trillion is the Treasury’s General Account, where the Treasury parks cash awaiting disbursement—an entangling service the Fed only began providing in 2008.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
Washington's warning about the dangers of entangling alliances was followed for 150 years.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2026
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
He rose quickly as though to cast off some entangling danger.
From "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck
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.
